WILMORE, Ky.--- Asbury men's basketball (6-14, 2-5 CCS) was lifted to a comback win over Collegiate Conference of the South (CCS) opponent Covenant College (7-11, 2-4 CCS) by sophomore business administration majors Cayden Lancaster and Jonathan Combs on Tuesday night in Lookout Mountain, Ga., 99-96.
Lancaster and Combs each scored career-high's, Lancaster going 11-15 for 24 points and Combs shooting 7-12 with 21 points. Lancaster also secured a career-high 11 rebounds in his first career double-double.
The Asbury 99 points is their most in a game this season, topping the 89 they scored on January 25 in a win against Piedmont. AU also shot their highest field percentage of the season at 54%, putting up 57 second half points on 61% shooting and seven threes in the half.
The Eagles trailed by 12 (67-79) with 10:48 to go in the game, but went on a 23-10 run over the next seven minutes to take their first lead of the entire game, 90-89. AU opened the game trailing 11-0 and was behind by 16 in the first half, 34-18.
Asbury's late run was powered by 10 points from Combs, and then sealed by three-pointers from Ben McNew and Luke imfeld to give AU a 96-91 lead they didn't give up.
McNew and Imfeld combined for 31 points, McNew knocking in four threes while Imfeld dished five assists. Aden Slone distributed six assists and grabbed six rebounds with seven points.
The teams tied for points in the paint at 44 apiece, Covenant taking a slight edge in 13 second chance points compared to AU with 11 on second chance.
Covenant forced Asbury into 15 turnovers and scored 21 points off the giveaways. AU scored 12 points off the Covenant 12 turnovers.
Both teams made 11 threes and Covenant made one more total field goal than AU (35-34), but Asbury went 20-28 from the line while Covenant went 15-23 from the stripe.
The Eagles now lead the overall series with Covenant 5-2, and will host the Scots in Wilmore on February 20th.
"We're very proud of the way our guys handled adversity on the road tonight. Covenant's Barnes Center is a tough place to play no matter who walks into that building. Coach Shouse did a great job getting our guys ready and the team stayed the course and came out with a huge conference win."
Russ Abner | Associate Head Men's Basketball Coach
AU will host two key CCS matchups at the Luce Center this weekend, LaGrange on Friday night at 6 pm and Huntingdon on Saturday at 4 pm.
* Cayden Lancaster | 24 PTS, 11 REB (Both career-highs and first double-double)
* Jonathan Combs | 21 PTS, 3 REB, 2 AST, 7-12 FG
* Luke Imfeld | 14 PTS, 5 AST, 2 REB, 3 STL
* Aden Slone | 6 AST, 6 REB, 7 PTS
* Ben McNew | 17 PTS, 4 3PT, 6 REB
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