St. Andrews men’s basketball squanders 19-point lead, falls short against Kentucky Christian

LAURINBURG — With a 39-20 lead with 3:16 to go in the first half, the St. Andrews Knights men’s basketball team looked to be well on its way to its first Appalachian Athletic Conference win on Saturday against the Kentucky Christian Knights at Harris Court.

What happened instead was a scoring punch from Kentucky Christian that got them back into the game. After not leading the entire game, the Kentucky Christian Knights went ahead 66-64 with 6:05 to go and held on to complete its comeback, downing St. Andrews 74-72.

“(We) got too excited,” St. Andrews head coach Randy Hernandez said. “Played for the crowd. We didn’t play for ourselves today. We were trying to show off.”

St. Andrews (2-2, 0-2 AAC) had two chances to tie or take the lead with under 15 seconds remaining; the first came with 14.1 left. After St. Andrews called a timeout, guard Patrick McLaughlin pulled up from just beyond the free-throw line, but his shot was too strong. Kentucky Christian forward Eric Sanders rebounded the miss, then St. Andrews fouled. Sanders missed the front end of a one-and-one at the stripe, though, and forward Quwan Barnes got the board and called another St. Andrews timeout with 1.2 to go.

Barnes inbounded the ball out of the timeout to guard Seth Smith, and Smith’s heave from the right wing at the buzzer bounced off the backboard without touching the rim.

“Learn from it, watch film, and go to the next game,” Hernandez said. “We can’t dwell on the same game. They can’t dwell on it, and that’s what we’ve got to do. So, we’ve got to be prepared for the next game.”

An area of focus that Hernandez has discussed since last season has been his St. Andrews’ free-throw shooting. The team made just 11 of their 18 free-throw attempts (61.1%), and in a one-possession game, that was the difference between a win and a loss.

“Every free throw counts,” Hernandez said. “They’re free for a reason.”

Guard Garrett McRae had 16 points for St. Andrews; Barnes had a double-double with 15 points and 16 rebounds; Smith had 13 points, eight rebounds, and three steals; and McLaughlin had 12 points.

St. Andrews scored the first six points of the game, with four points from guard Seth Smith and two from center Allan Taylor, before guard LeMar Northington gave Kentucky Christian (3-2, 1-0 AAC) its first points with a 3-pointer. After a free throw by Smith and a layup by forward D’Angelo Stockstill, Barnes knocked down St. Andrews’ first 3 to make it 10-5.

With 12:52 left in the first half, Kentucky Christian cut its deficit to 14-11 with two points from Sanders, but St. Andrews exploded for a 21-6 scoring run over the next nearly eight minutes of play to get out to a 35-17 lead. A 3 by guard Rheyce DeBoard knocked St. Andrews’ lead back down to 15, but a pair of free throws by McLaughlin and a layup from McRae pushed it back to 39-20.

Kentucky Christian closed the final 3:16 of the frame with 16 of the last 20 points scored, however, to make St. Andrews’ lead at the break 43-36.

Barnes opened the second half with back-to-back 2-point buckets before Sanders hit a shot from behind the arc to make it 47-39.

St. Andrews’ last double-digit lead came with 13:51 remaining after a tip-in by Taylor made it 56-45. Guard Kirk Pence dropped in two free throws and hit a layup for Kentucky Christian to bring it to a seven-point game. After guard Jalen King-Joiner made it a 58-53 deficit for Kentucky Christian, McRae stretched the lead back to seven for St. Andrews with a layup with 10:28 to go. Kentucky Christian battled back, though, to make it 62-58, and after Taylor bucketed two points for St. Andrews, Kentucky Christian went on an 8-0 run to take the lead at 66-64.

King-Joiner had a game-high 19 points and pulled down five rebounds for Kentucky Christian; Sanders had 13 points, nine rebounds, three assists, and three steals; and Pence had 10 points and four rebounds. All three players came off the bench.

Kentucky Christian was 28 of 64 (43.8%) on its field goals, 10 of 27 (37%) on its 3s, and just 8 of 18 (44.4%) on its free throws. St. Andrews shot 29 of 69 (42%) from the field and 3 of 11 (27.3%) from 3-point range.

St. Andrews had the rebounding advantage 41-38 and had one less turnover than Kentucky Christian at 18.

St. Andrews plays Bluefield (Va.) on the road on Tuesday.