The Piedmont College men's basketball team rose to the occasion in the final conference home game of the season taking down the Huntingdon Hawks 75-62. Chris Meeks picked up where he left off Saturday as he led the team with his sixth double-double of the year scoring 18 points and bringing down 16 rebounds. <br />
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Meeks is the leading rebounder on the team averaging 7.8 a game and second in the USA South. The junior is currently the third leading scorer on the team and has four double-doubles in the last seven contests. <br />
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Chase England and Trae Gaines both reached double figures as well with England scoring 13 and Gaines adding 10 off the bench. <br />
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Huntingdon jumped out to an early lead, but never led by more than five points. The Lions tied it up at 11 on a jumper by Gaines with 13:55 to go in the first and 30 seconds later, he gave Piedmont its first lead on a layup.<br />
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That was part of what would be an 18-0 run for the Lions to put them comfortably out in front and in control of the game at 27-13 with 7:34 on the clock till the break. The men in green and gold would eventually lead by 19 on a 3-pointer by Trey Winders just before the 3:00 mark.<br />
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The Hawks continued to claw back, but Winders would again give the Lions a 19 point lead on a jumper in the final minute of play to send the game to the half 42-23.<br />
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Piedmont extended its lead to as many as 25 in the second half on a 3-pointer by Marquise Lanire, but the Hawks chipped away at the lead as they had an 11-0 run over the span of 2:30 of clock.<br />
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The Lions' lead was cut to as few as nine, but Piedmont rallied again to extend the lead to 16 after Lanier hit one from the charity stripe. Meeks put an emphatic cap on the game with a dunk in the final two minutes of play with the final shot from the floor for Piedmont.<br />
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This marked the final USA South contest inside Cave Arena for the Lions during the 2014-15 season. With the win, the Lions moved back into the fifth spot in the conference standings with only a single league game left on the schedule.<br />
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That contest comes when Piedmont travels to Maryville to take on the Scots Wednesday night. Maryville won against LaGrange Sunday to move into the fourth spot in the league sitting at 7-5 in the conference. Tipoff Wednesday in Maryville will be at 5:30 p.m.
