Bishop men fall on the road at Methodist, 79-73

Fayetteville, NC - Methodist University out-scored North Carolina Wesleyan by three points in each half on Monday night to secure a six-point win over the visiting Bishops in USA South play, 79-73.  Both teams are now 10-12 on the season and 5-5 in conference action.  Monday’s result leaves Methodist and Wesleyan in a tie for fourth place in the league standings entering this weekend’s final two regular season contests.

In what truly was a see-saw battle, neither squad could forge more than a five-point lead in the first half.  MU’s Travis Winstead knocked down three-pointer with 25 seconds left in the period to send the Monarchs into the break with a 41-38 lead.

Methodist opened up the second half with a 7-0 run to go up 10 points at 48-38.  The Monarchs would never trail in the period, although the Bishops twice pulled to within two points.

Wesleyan’s final attempt at the tie came with 2:16 left in regulation when an Adam Coleman jumper made the score 75-73 in favor of MU.  The Bishops then forced three Monarch turnovers and collected one offensive rebound over the next two minutes.  Methodist, however, held strong for all four possessions as Wesleyan could not come up with the equalizing basket.

Forced to foul, the Bishops watched MU’s Dragan Radmanovic knock down 4-of-4 free throw attempts in the final 20 seconds to secure the Monarch win.

NCWC’s Lenny Hall led all scorers with 19 points and seven assists.  Trey Drake and Coleman chipped in 15 and 10 points, respectively, while Coleman completed the double-double with 10 rebounds.

Radmanovic paced Methodist with 17 points.  Adrian Bascom had 16 and A.B. Lehmann 13 to round out MU’s double-figure scorers.

The difference in the game came in shooting percentage.  The Monarchs connected on nearly 50 percent of their attempts (31-of-63) to the Bishops’ 36 percent from the floor (25-of-69).

Wesleyan will host Ferrum College on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Everett Gymnasium.