HAMPDEN-SYDNEY, Va. – The Shenandoah University men's basketball team completed its regular season Saturday afternoon with an 80-66 ODAC loss at Hampden-Sydney.
H-SC (15-10, 8-8) used a 10-0 run sandwiching halftime to rally past SU (4-21, 3-13) and salvage a split of the season series with the Hornets.
Shenandoah remains as the No. 12 seed at the upcoming ODAC Tournament despite the loss; official pairings will be announced following the completion of regular season play Sunday but SU knows it will travel to either Eastern Mennonite, Hampden-Sydney or Lynchburg on Monday for a first round game.
The winner of that contest advances to the Salem Civic Center for a Thursday quarterfinal round contest against the tournament fourth seed (either Lynchburg or Eastern Mennonite).
Thanks to an 8-of-13 first half performance (62 percent) from behind the arc, SU took a 37-32 lead into the halftime break over the Tigers.
Unfortunately, H-SC scored the initial nine points of the second stanza in a span of 2:53 to take four-point, 41-37, lead with 16:08 to play.
Shenandoah briefly re-took the lead by answering that Hampden-Sydney run with a 5-0 run of its own before the hosts grabbed a league it would not relinquish with a 12-5 spurt that put the Tigers on top 53-45 with 11:41 remaining.
Another run, this one 17-2 over a span of 5:04, pushed the H-SC advantage out to 17 points by the 7:27 mark.
SU would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Junior Malcolm Clark paced the Hornets with a game-high 18 points while Eli McEathron added a career-high 17 and both Xavier Alston and Aaron Patterson 11 each.
Leon Hargrove paced the victors with 17 points.
Hampden-Sydney shot 51 percent to the Hornets 42 percent and owned a 37-31 advantage on the glass.
Alston had a game-high nine rebounds to just miss his second double-double of the year.
###