WINCHESTER, Va. – Visiting N.C. Wesleyan forced Shenandoah into numerous turnovers Saturday afternoon to key a 75-65 non-conference men's basketball victory in the concluding game of the 2014 South Region Challenge.
NCWC (2-1) scored 35 points of the Hornets' 25 turnovers to win for the 24th time over SU (1-3) in the longtime series between former conference rivals.
The Bishops scored 12 of those 25 turnovers with steals.
N.C. Wesleyan never trailed in the game and led by as much as 15 points, but could never put the Hornets away.
Holding a 12-point lead following a Brandon Brown jumper with 7:37 left, the Bishops saw SU roar back into it with a 9-2 run over the next 3:30.
Senior Jared Carithers, who had a team-high 16 points for the hosts, scored seven of his team's nine points in the run with a 3-pointer, a jumper and two free throws.
NCWC staunched the bleeding with a DJ Weaver 3-pointer followed by 1 of 2 from the line from Eric Dortch-Jones, but SU got four consecutive Xavier Alston free throws to again cut the deficit to five, 68-63, with 53 seconds remaining.
The Bishops then hit 5 of 6 from the line and forced two Shenandoah turnovers to seal the victory.
In addition to Carithers' 16, Henry Sorsaia had 11 and Alston 10 for the hosts.
Dortch-Jones had a game-high 23 for N.C. Wesleyan.
Shenandoah shot an even 50 percent (21 of 42) for the game and had seven of the game's 11 successful 3-pointers.
The men are off for the Thanksgiving holiday and return to action on Sunday, November 30 with a non-league game at Marymount.
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