HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Lees-McRae College men’s basketball team’s magical season came to an end Saturday afternoon in Harrogate, Tennessee as the Bobcats fell by a final score of 90-69 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament to the seventh-ranked team in the nation Queens University of Charlotte. The loss wraps up LMC’s 2017-18 record at 23-9.
Coming into Saturday’s game ranked in the top 10 nationally in three-point field goal percentage, the Bobcats struggled to get the long ball working in the opening half. LMC connected on just one of 13 trays in the first, and shot 28.6 percent from the field overall. On the flip side, the Royals used a balanced attack from the paint and from beyond the arc to stake themselves to a 49-26 advantage over LMC at the break.
The Bobcats rebounded somewhat in the second half boosting their shooting percentage to 40 percent on 35 shots on top of going 5-for-10 from three-point range. Senior Jordan Turner scored 11 of his team-high 14 points Saturday in the second half. Despite the efforts from Turner and the rest of the Bobcats, the large lead that Queens built in the opening stanza stood up as it won the contest, 90-69.
Overall, four different Bobcats finished with double figures against the Royals. As mentioned earlier, Turner led the way with 14, while Quay Kimble chipped in 12. Seniors Josh Gaither and Lepreece Lynch rounded out the double figure scorers with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
As mentioned earlier the Bobcats conclude the season with a 23-9 record overall, which is their best season in program history. LMC will graduate 10 seniors from this season’s team, including All-Conference players in Lynch and Turner. Lees-McRae is set to bring back Kimble, Juwan Blanton, Jason Saintizaire, Dylan Gollihar, Kamil Williams and Malik Wright for the 2018-19 season.
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