Moore Pushes Men's Basketball to Win Over Bears

HICKORY, NC -- Keon Moore (Colerain, NC/Bertie HS) scored 24 points and had nine rebounds to send Catawba to a 66-60 upset win over Lenoir-Rhyne Wednesday night at Shuford Memorial Gymnasium. The Indians improve to 7-16 overall and 4-11 in the South Atlantic Conference while the Bears fall to 12-12 and 8-7.

After a key turnover by L-R’s D.J. Blackmon with 11 seconds left, Moore calmly hit two from the charity stripe to secure the 66-60 victory. Moore had just missed the front end of a pair eight seconds earlier, but made the second for a four-point lead.

The Bear’s B.J. Beasely hit a layup with 34 seconds to go to get L-R within three at 63-60, but had to resort to fouling and missed their final two shots.

Down 60-49 with 4:39 left, the charging Bears closed on an 11-3 run fueled by their defense.  Lenoir-Rhyne’s pressing forced three Catawba turnovers in the final minute alone. The Indians missed their final four shots and went 3-for-6 from the line in the last 20 seconds yet found a way to win.

Despite a slow start to the second half, Lenoir-Rhyne gradually started making shots and trimmed the margin down to 10 at 58-48 on a Kevin Davis jumper with just over seven minutes remaining.

The Indians steadily grew their lead early on in the second stanza as Justin Huntley (Mooresville, NC/Mooresville HS) connected with Tyrece Little (Greenville, NC/Rose HS) on a layup at the 16:29 mark for the largest lead of the game at 43-27.

Catawba made 13-of-32 field goals in the first half with Moore making six of those for 13 points helping the Indians get out to a quick start. Cameron Lovelace (Cherryville, NC/Cherryville HS) hit one of Catawba’s four treys in the half near the ten-minute mark to double-up L-R at 14-7.

Connor Strickland (Raleigh, NC/Broughton HS) ended the half on a high note as he drained a three at the buzzer for a 34-23 advantage at the intermission. Catawba went 8-for-17 for the game from long range.

Lee Martin (Mt. Airy, NC/N. Surry HS/Hargrave) and Stuart Thomson (Poynton, ENGLAND/Poynton HS) both collected eight points for the Indians as Little grabbed 10 rebounds. Blackmon paced the Bears with 25 points and five rebounds.

The Indians play host to Tusculum on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 4 p.m.