Box Score KINGSPORT, Tenn.—After a 14-day layoff, the Fire men's basketball team came out strong in its game against Rio Grande, but needed to survive a late surge to improve to 5-0.
The 23
rd-ranked Fire built a 15-point first half lead, but had to defend two 3-point shots in the final second of the game to come away with a 96-93 win at the NAIA Division II Showcase.
Southeastern never trailed in the contest, hitting on three of its first four shots, and scoring the first nine points of the game; six of which came off the hand of junior
Elijah Ray. Ray finished the night with 18 points, three rebounds, and two steals in just shy of 20 minutes of play.
The key was the play of senior
Jake Hodges, who finished with a career-high and tournament record 31 points, connecting on 9-of-11 from the field, which included a 4-of-8 showing from 3-point range.
Rio Grande (5-4) got the first half deficit back down to two with 4:29 left thanks to a 9-0 run, but the Fire outscored the Red Storm 20-9 to take a 54-41 lead at the half.
SEU held a 12-point lead with 2:13 to play when Rio 10-0 run to make it a 93-91 deficit with 50 seconds left. A free throw by Ray, and two by
Xavier Burrow gave the Fire a 3-point lead with nine seconds left.
The Red Storm missed a 3-pointer with a second left and were able to get the rebound and call timeout with enough time to take another shot, but it failed as well.
Linwood Ross was also in double figures in scoring, adding 16 points off the bench, and
Isaac Barsh added a team-best 11 rebounds off the bench.
Southeastern returns to action tomorrow at 1 p.m. against West Virginia Tech, which came away with a close win over St. Thomas earlier today.
