Huntingdon knocks off Piedmont, advances to USA South semifinals

MONTGOMERY, Ala.  – The Huntingdon men's basketball team took control in the final minutes to eliminate Piedmont 87-72 on Tuesday night in the opening round of the USA South Athletic Conference Tournament.

The Hawks outscored Piedmont 23-6 in the final 7:06 of the game to earn their first trip to the USA South Tournament semifinals since 2014.

Huntingdon (13-13) will play at Averett (20-6) in the semifinals on Friday at 6 p.m. (Central). Huntingdon, the No. 2 seed in the West, edged the Cougars 93-92 in their first meeting of the season in December.

Averett, the No. 1 seed in the East Division, will host the semifinals and the championship game. Methodist and Covenant will play at 4 p.m. (Central) in the other semifinal game. Friday's winners will advance to the championship game at 5 p.m. (Central) on Saturday.  

Tuesday's win was the Hawks' third of the season against Piedmont. In the early stages, it was a game of momentum swings. Huntingdon scored the first nine points of the game before Piedmont answered and took a 10-point lead, 25-15, with a little less than eight minutes to play in the first half.

But from there, the game evened out. During a 20-minute stretch from the final 4:26 of the first half until the 4:00 mark in the second half, neither team led by more  than five points.

Trailing 66-64 with 7:23 to play in the game, Jacob Champion hit a 3-pointer to give the Hawks the lead. Huntingdon would not trail again.

An 11-4 run gave the Hawks a 75-70 lead with 2:35 remaining. Huntingdon would hold Piedmont to two points for the remainder of the game. Huntingdon's five-point lead became a 10-point lead before a basket by Niko Paige closed the scoring and gave Huntingdon its biggest lead of the night.

Damien Madison led all scorers with 21 points and also had four assists. Madison is second in the USA South with 475 total points and is third with 18.3 points per game this season. The sophomore, who leads the USA South and is among the Division III leaders with 163 free throws this season, was 10-for-11 from the free-throw line against Piedmont.

Champion finished with 17 points and was 5-for-10 from 3-point range. James Harris added 13 points and Caleb Toney had 11 points and three steals. Charvez' Hobson and Mykel Woods each pulled down a team-high six rebounds.

Records: Huntingdon (13-13); Piedmont (14-12)                                                       

Coming Up: Huntingdon plays at Averett in the USA South Tournament semifinals on Friday at 6 p.m. (Central).