For immediate release – 1/7/2015 - #214
Hornets Drop 83-82 Heartbreaker to No. 8 Virginia Wesleyan

LYNCHBURG, VA – The Lynchburg College men's basketball team fought back in the second half but junior Daniel Rowe's last second heave was waved off as time expired on eighth-ranked Virginia Wesleyan College's 83-82 victory over the Hornets Wednesday evening.

Lynchburg trailed by as many as nine points in the first half of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) contest. LC was behind 38-30 in 3:55 remaining in the period when a 5-0 run closed to gap to one possession as Rowe, Lyndon White and Omar Kemp found the scoring column.

Tim Jones netted four points in the final two minutes of the first to stake Virginia Wesleyan a five point halftime lead, 42-37.

The Marlins continued to pull away in the second half as Khory Moore netted 10 points in the first three minutes of the final period on two three-pointers and four free throws.

A trifecta by Breven Lyons gaves the Marlins their largest lead at 55-44 before Lynchburg began the comeback with 16:14 left in the game.

A dunk by Austen Arnold and jumper from White cut the deficit to seven before two more Marlin free throws extended the margin back to nine with 14:56 left.

Arnold followed the freebies with a jumper and three-pointer on back-to-back possessions to spur a 15-1 run to garner Lynchburg the 63-58 advantage. Following Virginia Wesleyan's lone point in the run, Zack Burnett scored a layup and Kemp dunked the ball to cut the lead to 58-57. Burnett's jumper on the following possession gave Lynchburg its first lead of the night. Arnold and Burnett scored on the next two trips down the floor to close the gap with the five point lead with 9:23 remaining.

Virginia Wesleyan shot its way back into the contest over the next five minutes on just three made shots from the field, but managed to force turnovers and get to the free throw line. The Marlins made six from the charity stripe to take the lead back for good and hit a total of 20 in the second half.

Virginia Wesleyan shot 20-22 from the free throw line as opposed to the Hornets going 8-17 from the stripe.

Moore led the Marlins (10-2/2-1 ODAC) with 27 points while collecting four steals. He was joined in double figured by Lyons with 12, Jones with 11 and Cameron Owens' 10.

Lynchburg was paced by Rowe's career-high 24 points and six rebounds while Burnett contributed 14 points and four boards. Arnold finished with 13 points while Kemp matched in a career-high with 12.

Lynchburg (8-4/1-2) travels to Eastern Mennonite University (9-3/2-1) for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Saturday evening.

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