Hawks come up short in final seconds against Birmingham-Southern

DUE TO CURRENT COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS, FANS ARE NOT PERMITTED AT HUNTINGDON BASKETBALL GAMES

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon men's basketball team battled Birmingham-Southern to the buzzer but came up short 76-74 on Saturday.

The Panthers scored with five seconds remaining to edge the Hawks. Huntingdon had one final chance but the last-second shot was off its mark.

This was the second tight battle between the teams this week. The Panthers won the first meeting 87-81 in overtime on Monday.

Huntingdon's Damien Madison led all scorers with 32 points, matching his total from Monday's game and finishing one-point short of his career-high. Justin Johnson followed with nine points and Caleb Toney had a team-high nine rebounds. Dylan Bohling added six rebounds and Ceaunte Zachery and Ty Clark each had five rebounds.

Huntingdon fell behind in the first half and faced its largest deficit of the game, 53-43, in the first four minutes of the second half. But from there, the Hawks used an 18-2 run to erase the Panthers' lead. Madison scored eight of Huntingdon's first 10 points during the run as Huntingdon built a 61-55 lead with 11:47 to play in the game.

During the final 11 minutes of the game, neither team would lead by more than four points. As both teams battled for the lead down the stretch, Huntingdon scored its final points to tie the game 74-74 on a pair of free throws by Madison with 1:19 to play.

Records: Huntingdon (0-3); Birmingham-Southern (3-0)

Coming Up: Huntingdon is scheduled to open conference play on Jan. 14 at LaGrange.