Hawks knock off LaGrange in conference battle

LAGRANGE, Ga. – The Huntingdon men's basketball team held off a late push by LaGrange and picked up a 64-59 conference win on Wednesday.

The Hawks built an 11-point lead in the first half and never trailed in the second half. But with Huntingdon (3-15, 2-5 USA South) leading 59-49 in the final three minutes, LaGrange (9-9, 3-5 USA South) scored eight straight points to pull within two points with 46 seconds left.

The Hawks closed out the win in the final 19 seconds with Alex Layson hitting a layup and a free throw and Dantavius Washington sinking two free throws.

"We did a great job on the boards and played better on defense tonight," Huntingdon head coach Mike Pugh said. "Jerome Davis, Alex Layson and Andre Ashley all played well tonight and we were able to get some points from our bench as well. That made a big difference. This was a good win."

Ashley led Huntingdon with 16 points and seven rebounds and Layson added 14 points and eight rebounds. Five Hawks finished with at least seven rebounds. In addition to Ashley and Layson, Davis had nine rebounds and eight assists, Washington had nine rebounds and nine points and Raheem Berry had eight rebounds.

As a team, Huntingdon pulled down 52 rebounds to LaGrange's 33.

Huntingdon returns to action on Saturday at Covenant at 1 p.m.