DEMOREST — For the seventh straight contest, the Piedmont College men's basketball team came out on the winning end picking up a 91-82 victory over Maryville College on Monday. The Lions extended their win streak to seven games -- the longest win streak in the NCAA era for the men's basketball program.
It was a tight game early with Maryville leading 10-6 after a 3-pointer by Calvin Songster who posted 21 points in the game, but then both teams went cold from the field as it was scoreless for nearly three minutes. Maryville's next two buckets from the field were both 3-pointers as they led 16-11 with 12:14 to play in the first half.
Chase England connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to cut it to a two point game, but Maryville went on a run and took their largest lead of the game at 10 points 33-23 with 5:16 to go in the first half. The Cave Crazies were electric Monday night igniting the Lions who ended the first half on a 10-0 run to take momentum into the break up 44-41.
The Lions stretched their lead to seven on a Justin Vallejo 3-pointer four minutes into the second half, but the Scots fought back and hit back-to-back 3-pointers to take a one point lead 61-60 with just under 12:00 to play.
Landry Assinesi rose to the occasion giving the Lions back the lead on a 3-pointer, just his third of the season and the Lions never trailed again. Assinesi's triple sparked a 16-3 run as Piedmont led by 12, their largest lead of the game, with 7:40 to play.
The Scots got as close as five points with under 5:00 remaining but the Lions were nearly perfect down the stretch from the free throw line going 7-of-8 to close out the game.
