Birmingham, Alabama ~ The Rhodes men's basketball team dropped a SCAC game to Birmingham Southern tonight 58-92. The Lynx could not overcome a hot Panther team who shot 44% from the three in the first half as they connected on 10 of 23 attempts from beyond the arc and 58% overall from the field in the first 20 minutes.
Birmingham Southern led start to finish as they connected on a three pointer on their first possession, and scored the first seven points of the game. Junior Josh Arant (Charlotte, NC)opened the scoring for the Lynx with a layup at the 17:42 mark to cut the deficit to five before a 10-0 run pushed the lead to double digits. A Nathan Ollie (Memphis, TN) made the score 17-3. With Birmingham Southern up 18 points, Larry Cunningham, JR. (St. Charles, MO) scored five straight points for the Lynx and gave Rhodes a glimmer of hope cutting the deficit to 13. But that was as close as the Lynx got as the Panthers pushed their first half lead to 31 heading into the locker room with a 54-23 lead.
Birmingham Southern scored the first four points of the second half and grabbed their largest lead of 35 points with just under 19 minutes left. Rhodes cut into the lead and an old fashioned three point play by freshman Andrew Galow (Oswego, IL) cut the lead to 24 points at the 12:11 mark. Two free throws by Reid Hamilton (Birmingham, AL) brought the Lynx to within 23, but they never got any closer.
On the game, Rhodes placed three players in double digits with Ollie scoring a game high 14 points off the bench. Kory Kilpatrick (Athens, GA) and Galow scored 12 and 11 respectively. Galow led the Lynx with a game high 8 rebounds. The Lynx struggled from the field, shooting only 31% , including just 1 of 14 from three. Rhodes turned the ball over a season high 24 times leading to 33 Panther points.
Rhodes will be back in action on Monday night with their final home game of the season against Freewill Baptist College. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 pm. The Lynx will then travel to Greencastle, Indiana to take on SCAC foe DePauw University on Friday before closing out the regular season with a 3 pm tipoff against Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.
