Men Mountaineers fall to top conference opponent Maryville College
Berea’s Men Mountaineer basketball team traveled to Maryville College for a big divisional game Wednesday. Maryville College held off Berea although 70-61. Maryville College is the best team in the USA South West division and as of now the best team in the USA South conference. This loss was still a great game for Berea.
After the first half of play Berea found themselves going to the locker room just losing by 2 points. The Mountaineers were lead in scoring by Deandre Lightfoot with 7 points. This was only Lightfoot’s second start on the season with the loss of Sophomore Dakota Myers due to injuries. However, the Mountaineers would see Freshman Travis Hadyn Roe back on the court after leaving last Saturday’s Averett game early with a shoulder injury. Also in the first half the Mountaineers played great defense on Maryville College’s best shooter, Calvin Songster. Songster came into this game just third in 3PT. percentage in the USA South Conference. Songster left the 1st half with only 3 pts off of 1/5 shooting from the field.
In the second half of play, both teams would see their scoring explode. Berea and Maryville saw their field goal percentages go from low 30’s in the first half to low 50’s in the second half. Maryville was able to score more efficiently. Calvin Songster would improve from his sluggish first half. The second half Songster shot 5/6 from the 3PT line and drop 18 points. Songster finished this victory with 21 points. Berea saw flashes of a great future in Freshman Mitchell “MJ” Embree who scored 11 points in the second half off of 3/4 shooting from the 3PT line. Berea although would be outscored by conference opponent 44-37 in the second half resulting in the Mountaineers losing this big game. Berea will see Maryville one more time this season on February 10 at the Seabury Center for one of their last conference games.
Berea will play Saturday at Piedmont College at 2 PM for their second of their 4 straight away games. Berea still has enough conference games to prove they deserve to be that fourth team in their division to play in the 2018 USA South Conference Tournament in February!
