MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA -- The Piedmont College men's basketball team picked up a big USA South win on the road earlier today winning 81-69 at conference member Huntingdon College. <br />
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The win puts Piedmont now at 11-9 overall as the Lions are 6-4 in conference play putting themselves in good position to claim its first USA South postseason appearance. At the end of the contest down at HC, the Lions' 6-4 mark put them in the league's top four of the regular season standings. <br />
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Four Lions were in double figures led by sophomore CHASE ENGLAND who posted 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor as the Lions shot better than 48% as a team. Piedmont was better than 43% from downtown as well led by the hot hand of England who was 4-of-6 from deep. <br />
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Posting one of his best shooting performances was JESSIE JENKINS who hit on 5-of-7 from the field hitting on his only try from 3-point land. Jenkins was also 3-of-4 from the charity stripe where Piedmont was 15-of-19 from the line as a team. <br />
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The Lions led at halftime by six, 34-28 after a late run just before the break. Huntingdon held a 2-point edge (24-22) after a Taylor Hughes three, but Piedmont closed the half on a 12-4 run courtesy of eight combined points from DANIEL MCCRAVY and TREY WINDERS off the bench.<br />
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Piedmont's depth came into play on the day with 14-first half points coming from the subs as the Lions looked for their third straight win and 6th conference victory of the year.<br />
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Coming out of the intermission, Piedmont used five unanswered to go up by 11, its first double-digit lead of the day. <br />
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Huntingdon cut the lead down to single digits three times in the second half, but nearly every time the Hawks did so, Piedmont had an answer scoring on the next possession in two of those three instances. Each time Piedmont went back into a double digit lead after being cut down to single digits, it was JUSTIN VALLEJO who put Piedmont back in the right spot doing so the first time with a 3-pointer. <br />
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For Vallejo, it was only the 6th 3-pointer made on the season. Vallejo finished the day with 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting. <br />
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The difference came from downtown where Huntingdon was 5-of-27 as a team with two of those coming from Alex Layson who led the Hawks with his 16 points. <br />
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Piedmont was led in the assists department by LANDRY ASSINESI who collected five helpers while England picked up three of his own as did his classmate BRIAN EDWARDS. <br />
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Piedmont will have a few days to rest before climbing the mountain for their next matchup, a trip to Covenant College on Wednesday evening for a USA South affair. Tip off in Lookout Mountain on February 11 between the Scots and the Lions is set for 5:30 pm.
