Eagles Hold on to Pick Up Road Win at St. Andrews

Waleska, GA - The Eagles were back on the road this weekend with a conference game with St. Andrews who is currently sitting at the bottom of the conference standings. After having a sizable lead, the Knights of St. Andrews did make it a close game in the final minutes of the game. The Eagles were able to escape with a road win, 82-78. With this win, the Eagles have won seven of their last eight games after narrowly losing to conference leader and #5 ranked Union.

Reinhardt jumped out to an early lead in the first five minutes of the first half, but St. Andrews was able to inch their way back into the game. The Eagles enjoyed a slim nine-point lead early, but St. Andrews brought the lead down to just two points with fifteen minutes left in the first half, however, by the ten-minute mark, the Eagles pushed the lead back up to nine points on a Tafari Thomas three-pointer. Thomas would lead all scorers in the game with 26 points and he pulled down 9 rebounds in the process. He shot really well from the field shooting 8 of 13 from the field and 5-8 from behind the three-point arch.

The Eagles were able to keep their lead most of the first half and even extended the lead to the largest of the game at fourteen points on a jump shot by point guard Brandon Barron.  The first half would end on a three-point shot by Thomas to take a 46-33 lead into the break.

The second half would have Reinhardt maintaining their lead and even extending it even further toward the midway point. Jalin Wimberly's three-pointer around the halfway point gave the Eagles a commanding twenty-point lead, however, they would need to keep the pressure on to prevent the Knights from working their way back into the game. The Knights would make a final push to get back into the game and by the five-minute mark in the game, the lead was just at seven points. The Eagles had a small time in the game where their shooting went cold and St. Andrews would claw their way back. From this point on in the game, the Eagles would have to scrap to keep their now slim lead.

With just thirty seconds left in the game, St. Andrews cut the once twenty-point lead down to just two and threatened to take the sure win away from the Eagles.  Barron hit a couple of key free throws in the final thirty seconds to get the four-point lead. After the Knights answered back with a made layup and the lead again cut to just two points, Wimberly would step up to make a couple of free throws with just seven seconds left to secure the win for the Eagles.

Although the last few minutes of the game were not the best for the Eagles, they held on to get the road conference win and keep their position in third place in the conference. The Eagles have several conference games left where they have a chance to better their position to second place in the conference.

Along with Thomas' 26 points, the Eagles had four players scoring in double figures. Tyler Smith followed with 15 points, Wimberly added 13 points, and Antonio Smith added 10 points. Smith had the only double-double of the scoring 15 points and pulling down 11 rebounds.

The Eagles will be trying to keep their streak going this Tuesday evening when Point University visits the Brown Athletic Center. It should be a great night of basketball for both the Men's and Women's teams.