YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. - With four players reaching double figures in the scoring column, the Anderson University men's basketball team earned its first victory of the young season with an 83-82 win past Young Harris in nonconference action Wednesday night at the YHC Basketball Arena.
Anderson (1-2) wrapped up its season-opening three-game road swing with the win, while earning their first victory over the Mountain Lions in three meetings and avoided its first three-game skid since 2011. Young Harris slipped to 1-1 on the young season.
Senior guard Nick Jackson, who sank two free throws with just 18
seconds remaining to provide the winning margin, finished the night
with a career-high 21 points on the strength of 6-of-8 shooting
from beyond the arc. Jackson also shared game-high rebounding
honors with six boards. Sophomore guard Lex Davis added a
career-best 12 points, while senior guard DJ McGowan also tallied
12 points on the night. Sophomore center Rakish Taylor equaled his
career-high with 10 points. Senior guard Myson Jones chipped in
eight points and dished out a season-high eight assists.
The Trojans offset 19 turnovers on the night with 15-of-25 shooting
(60 percent) from beyond the arc, equaling last season's 15 trey
effort at Carson-Newman in mid-February.
In a first half highlighted by scoring outbursts by both teams, the Mountain Lions opened the game with eight unanswered points on the strength of a pair of 3-pointers, first from senior Herdie Lawrence and then from sophomore guard C.J. Wilson. YHC's Sam Mike capped the opening run with a jumper in the paint. AU's McGowan slowed the opening outburst with a trey, but Wilson connected with his second early trey to boost the YHC advantage back to 11-3 inside the opening two minutes of the contest.
Young Harris quickly built its lead to double-digits, at 13-3, with just more than three minutes gone in the opening half, but Anderson countered with an 8-0 outburst of its own, as Alani Adekambi and Jackson drained back-to-back treys and trimmed the deficit to 13-11 on a layup by McGowan.
YHC reopened a six-point lead before the Trojans answered with 10-4 surge to knot the score for the first time, at 21 apiece, at the 7:35 mark of the half. Less than two minutes later, the Trojans took their first lead of the night on a 3-pointer from Davis, but the Mountain Lions closed the half on a 10-4 run to take a 36-31 advantage to the locker rooms.
The Mountain Lions claimed a seven-point lead early in the second half, but Anderson chipped away and pulled within one on a rare four-point play by Jackson. The Trojans then took their first lead since the 5:42 mark of the first half on a layup by Jackson, as the 6-foot-4 guard scored eight straight for AU.
After Young Harris's Kevin Altidor evened the score at 42-42 with one-of-two from the free throw line with 16:22 left in the game, McGowan gave the Trojans the lead for good on a layup. AU pushed out to a seven-point lead over the next four minutes and steadily built a 69-60 lead with less than eight minutes on the clock.
Davis' fifth 3-pointer of the night gave the Trojans an 81-73 advantage with two minutes left, but the homestanding Mountain Lions refused to go away quietly, as YHC climbed within 81-77 with 20 ticks on the clock. The game became a free-throw shooting contest in the final moments, as the Trojans misfired on 4-of-6 attempts inside the final seconds, while Wilson drained five consecutive free throws to bring the Mountain Lions within one and set the final score.
The Trojans open South Atlantic Conference action by welcoming Lenoir-Rhyne and Lincoln Memorial to the Abney Athletic Center on Saturday and Tuesday, respectively. The two-game conference homestand will wrap up a run of five games in 12 days for the Trojans, who are in the midst of playing five of their first seven games on the road.
Tip-off versus L-R is slated for 4 p.m. Saturday.
