Winchester, Va. -- The University of Lynchburg men's basketball team's season ended after a 71-65 loss to Shenandoah in the first round of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament Monday night.

Despite Lynchburg's 52 points in the second half, Shenandoah did just enough to hold on to the lead at home. A big reason why Lynchburg's 52 points in the final 20 minutes weren't enough was because of Shenandoah's 20-point advantage in the first half. Lynchburg scored 13 points in the opening period getting seven points from Jonathan Foust. He was the only Lynchburg player with multiple makes in the first half and finished the night with a team-high 16 points. 

Lynchburg gained some momentum towards its comeback attempt once the second half started. Lynchburg went on a 9-0 run in the first 1:46 of the second half and only trailed by 11. However, Shenandoah re-extended its lead and was up by 20 again with 12:03 to play. 

Beginning with a driving layup from Miles Taylor, Lynchburg made its second run of the game to nearly claw back into contention for a trip to Salem, Va. for the ODAC quarterfinals. Jayson Easton made two 3s, Piercen Young connected from deep, and Taylor led the run with seven points as Lynchburg outscored Shenandoah 21-7 over 7:21 of game time, and Lynchburg was only down by six with 3:02 to play. 

Landon Russ knocked down a 3-pointer for Shenandoah, then Jaylen Williams converted an "and-one" to ice the game. Williams made another free throw down the stretch to get to a game-high 21 points as Shenandoah eliminated Lynchburg from championship contention. 

Lynchburg nearly doubled its win total from a season ago and returned to the conference playoffs after a one-year hiatus in 2022-23. Taylor led the team in scoring with 9.2 points per game, Easton sank a team-high 37 3-pointers and converted from deep at a 42.5% clip, and Foust was the leading rebounder at 4.9 boards per game.

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--LYN--