The Lincoln University men's basketball team received a double-double from Deaquan Williams as he scored 17 points and grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds but were unable to get any rhythm on offense throughout the game as Claflin University handed the Lions their first home loss of the 2019-20 season 76-61 Thursday night at Manuel Rivero Hall.
The loss drops the Lions to 2-9 on the season. Claflin improves to 4-6.
Zahrion Blue was Lincoln's only other player to reach double figures, joining Williams. Blue finished the game with 15 points and also grabbed seven rebounds. Brendan Wagner added ten rebounds and seven points while Jordan Camper chipped in nine points and seven rebounds.
The Lions scored the first six points, jumping out to an early lead before the Panthers rallied with a 12-5 run to take a 12-11 lead. After as dunk from Williams put the Lions back on top the Panthers ran off ten straight points to take a 22-13 lead with 8:19 left. Lincoln came back with a 6-2 mini-run to capped by a Markus Stevenson three-ball to pull within five 24-19 but the Panthers outscored the Lions 12-3 over the final five minutes to take a 36-22 lead at halftime.
Lincoln outscored Claflin 15-7 to open the second half, cutting the Panther leads to six 43-37 with 11:11 left. Claflin turned up the defense, holding the Lions to just two field goals over the 4:22 while outscoring the Lincoln 17-4 to take their biggest lead of the game 60-41 with 6:49 left. The Lions would come no closer than 13 the rest of the way.
Letrell West led Claflin with 23 points while Brandon Davis and Romero Hill had 13 and 11 points respectively.
Defensively the Panthers held the Lions to just 33.9% shooting (20-59) from the field while forcing 19 turnovers. The 19 turnovers led to 28 Panther points. (a 28-8 advantage). Lincoln dominated on the glass, outrebounding Claflin 51-29 (22-8 on the offensive boards). Their 22 offensive rebounds led to 22 second chance points. (a 22-11 advantage). The Panthers shot 43.5% (27-62) for the game.
The men's basketball team will be back in action on Saturday, December 14, 2019 when they host Johnson C. Smith at Manuel Rivero Hall. Tipoff for Saturday's game is 4:00 p.m.
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