The Covenant men's basketball team needed a win on its home court Tuesday and it did just that against Piedmont. Behind 27 points from Adam Deininger, the Scots completed the season sweep of the Lions in the 97-85 win.
With the help of 3-pointers from Logan Patterson, Deininger, and Russell Hunter, the Scots jumped ahead 11-2 early on. Piedmont went on a 6-0 run before Covenant responded with five points of its own to put the score at 16-8.
Inside baskets by Hunter and Luuk Dusek kept Covenant in front 22-15 midway through the half.
Piedmont made its run a few minutes later as Covenant came up empty on six straight offensive possessions which allowed the Lions to move ahead 28-27.
After the two teams went back-and-forth for a few minutes, Deininger started getting hot from downtown, knocking down a pair of triples to push the Scots back in front 41-36.
Covenant scored the final four points of the half, including a layup from Zach Wescher with two seconds left to put it ahead 45-38.
A basket on the fast break by Logan Patterson started a 7-2 offensive spurt for Covenant out of the locker room to extend the lead to 52-40. Later on a 7-0 run by Piedmont with a transition triple in the middle of the run cut the Covenant lead to 60-53.
With 11:22 remaining, the Scots pushed their lead back to double-figures as Hunter buried a triple to make it 69-59. The Lions fought back to cut the lead to five points, before a crucial 10-0 run for Covenant capped off by an inside basket from Jake Stephens made it 81-66.
Piedmont kept scraping away as an 8-1 run put the score at 85-76, but that was as close as it would get the rest of the night.
Covenant's final 12 points were all scored at the foul line as it closed out the 97-85 victory.
Covenant moves to 19-19 all-time against Piedmont. Deininger set a new career-high with his 27 points. He was 9-of-13 from the field and 7-of-10 from the 3-point line. Pierce Smith nearly had a double-double posting 15 points, nine rebounds, and five blocks. In his second career start, Cole Carroll scored nine points on 2-of-2 shooting and 5-of-6 at the free-throw line.
Covenant was 40.5% (32-79) from the field and 27.5% (11-40) from behind the 3-point line while Piedmont was 43.2% (32-74) and 25% (4-16) in the same categories. The Scots forced 22 turnovers and turned the ball over themselves 16 times. At the foul line, Covenant was 73.3% (22-30) while Piedmont was 85% (17-20). As a team, Covenant had nine blocks coming from four different players.
Covenant travels to Huntingdon on Saturday.