Men's Basketball Edged Out By Thomas

WEST POINT, Ga. – The Point University men's basketball team comes up short in an 80-75 loss to conference foe Thomas University tonight during an instate rivalry contest. The Skyhawks are now 5-7 on the year and 1-5 in the SSAC, while Thomas moves to 5-9 and 2-3.

Thomas took an early 4-0 lead to open the game, but Point's Cahlib Edwards drained a three-pointer off a pass from Tanner Higgins to cut the lead to one. Thomas pushed its lead to 16-7 after using a 12-4 run with 12:52 left in the half. The Skyhawks attempted to chip away at the lead as they trailed 24-20 with just under eight minutes to go. Both teams traded baskets for most of the half, with Thomas taking a 46-37 lead into halftime.

Point scored the first five points coming out of the locker room to cut the lead to 46-42 with 18:33 to go. With 17:03 on the clock, the Skyhawks' Kenton Steele grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back in to make it a one-point game with Point down 49-48.  Point was able to tie the game at 50 with just over 16 minutes left in the game, and both teams went scoreless for almost four minutes until Thomas ended the drought to go up 52-50. For most of the half, Thomas would take the lead and the Skyhawks would tie it back up, until D'Andre Jefferson gave the Point its first lead of the game at 60-58 with just over eight minutes remaining. The lead did not last long as Thomas reclaimed the lead, but with 2:55 left in the game, Jefferson put Point back in front 70-69 off a pair of free throws. Thomas later strung together an 11-5 run to claim the victory.

Point out rebounded Thomas 40 to 37, while both teams were almost equal in shooting for the contest. Point shot 77.3% from the line, while going 42.4% from the floor and 25.8% from three.

Jefferson led Point with a double-double as he tallied 28 points and 10 boards on the night. He was 9 of 13 from the floor, 5 of 5 from the line, and 5 of 8 from the three-point range.

Teammate Kenton Steele finished the night with 21 points, five boards, and a team-high four steals.

Edwards added nine points of his own, plus five boards, while Kaden Paul registered seven points.

Point is back in action on Saturday when it hosts Abraham Baldwin Agricultural at 2 p.m. in conference action.