Pioneers Come Up Short in Loss to Life

Marietta, Georgia – The Spartanburg Methodist College men's basketball team dropped a 100-97 decision to host Life University on Sunday afternoon. The game featured seven tied scores and five lead changes.

It is the fifth game on the season where the scoring margin has been five points or less, unfortunately, SMC is now 1-4 on the season in the tightly contested matchups after the loss.

The Pioneers were paced by a 27-point effort from Kenny Burns, who was joined in double figures by Bryan Bayonne and Jeremy Gregory, who had 27 and 20 points, respectively. Burns also had nine assists and Gregory had nine boards, just shy of a double double effort for the two.

Life (4-0) was led by the 26-point effort from Chaze Harris, who paced five Eagles in double figures. Tyreke Johnson added 20, Ladarron Cleveland scored 18, Elias Ramirez had 14 and Dara Oloande provided 13 in the win. The five accounted for 14 of the 16 3-pointers that the home team hit in the win.

With 3:10 left in the game, Isaac Gray tied the game for the Pioneers at 94. Then, SMC regained the lead when Bayonne drove in for a layup with 2:05 to go for a 96-94 lead for the visitors from Spartanburg.

Life went ahead for the fifth time when Johnson hit his third 3-pointer of the game with :56 left to play. The Pioneers nearly tied it with :35 left to go as they missed a pair of layups.  The Eagles sealed the win, making a pair of free throws with :10 to go.

Next, SMC will travel to Campbellsville, Kentucky for a pair of matchups as they will face Campbellsville University on Friday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. and No. 17 Cumberlands on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 1 p.m.