Huntingdon men rally late but fall to Concordia

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon men's basketball team fell behind in the first half, but didn't go quietly in a 98-82 loss to Concordia on Tuesday.

The Hawks rallied from a 25-point deficit and pulled within seven points in the final minute of the game. But the Hornets hit seven free throws and a layup to pull back ahead and close out the game.

"We hit a dead spot in the first half and they got up on us," Huntingdon head coach Mike Pugh said. "But we made some adjustments at halftime and the guys really played hard in the second half. We didn't give up. We kept scrapping and we were able to get back in it and make a game of it. We cut it to seven points, but we ran out of gas coming back."

The performance was a marked improvement from the first meeting with Concordia this season. The Hornets won 103-77 on Nov. 20.

"We played our best game of the year tonight," Pugh said. "Coming in, our goal was to compete and we did that. Our guys gave great effort and that's something we can keep building on heading back into conference play."

Senior Austin Hill sparked the Hawks with 28 points. Hill scored a career-high 32 points in the first meeting with Concordia.

"Austin played a phenomenal game tonight," Pugh said. "He played hard on offense and defense and gave us all he had. Several guys gave us everything they had tonight. Charlie Johnson is another one, that even though it doesn't show up in the stats, he did a great job for us. If we can continue to get this kind of effort, we're going to have opportunities to win some games."

Behind Hill, T.C. Elmore had 17 points, six rebounds and four assists and Byron Dudley added 15 points and four steals. Jerome Davis finished with five assists.

Huntingdon (1-9) returns to conference action on Saturday at Ferrum at 3 p.m.