WINCHESTER, Va. - The SU men gave the senior night crowd something to cheer about Wednesday evening as the Hornets gutted out a 62-53 Dixie Conference victory over visiting Chowan. 

Shenandoah (12-10, 5-7) took a 34-26 lead at the break and then held on as Chowan (6-17, 3-9) matched SU bucket for bucket in the final 20 minutes.

SU was forced to play virtually the entire second half without the services of starting post men Michael Atkins (Winchester, Va./Sherando) and Halston Camp (Harrisonburg, Va./Harrisonburg) due to illness and foul trouble.

Atkins played just 10 minutes and missed the entire final 20 minutes because of the flu while Camp was available for just seven minutes and fouled out with four minutes remaining.

Fortunately for Head Coach Robert Harris, guards Tyson Thompson (Keysville, Va./Randolph Henry) and Chad Brashears (Hagerstown, Md./St. Maria Goretti) picked up the slack. Thompson scored 10 of his team high 18 points following the break while Brashears continued his torrid shooting with 14 points on four three-pointers and two free throws. 

This production negated the 25 points from the Braves' Dejuan Green; Green was the only CC player to have more than seven points. 

Shenandoah held the lead the entire 40 minutes and led by as much as 13 in the second half before Chowan made a game of it by cutting the deficit to four with 1:58 left.

Junior Todd Holt then stemmed this tide by sandwiching three successful free throws around a Thompson jumper to seal the contest. 

A complete box score and play by play can be found at http://www.su.edu/athletics/mb/021603.htm 

Shenandoah travels to Greensboro and Methodist this weekend for a pair of Dixie Conference contests.