The No. 23 ranked Emory University men's basketball team saw its three-game winning streak halted Tuesday night, falling on the road 69-58 in overtime to Covenant College at the Barnes PE Center on Lookout Mountain, GA.
Freshman Logan Shanahan and senior Nick Stuck combined for 33 of the 58 points with junior Mason Johnson coming off the bench to record 10 points in the loss. Shanahan collected a season-high 11 rebounds with Johnson and Stuck adding eight and seven each.
For the Scots, forward Will Crumly netted 24 points and eight rebounds as he was one of three Covenant starters in double figures. Forward Promise Igbanu finished with 16 points with guard Chris Barnette nearly missing a double-double at 10 points and nine rebounds.
The Eagles struggled from the floor on the evening, shooting 30.9% including 3-for-28 from behind the arc and 5-for-10 from the charity stripe. Covenant did not fair much better, finishing 21-for-55 (38.2%) and 5-for-13 from deep. However, the Scots knocked down 22 of their 26 free throw attempts (8-for-10 in overtime) in the win.
Shanahan's near double-double of nine points and eight rebounds in the first half lifted Emory to a 31-20 lead through the opening 20 minutes. The Eagles managed to keep the Scots at bay in the second half, seemingly answering every Covenant shot with a response of their own on the other side of the court.
However, the Scots kept chipping away and eventually found themselves down five at 55-50 with 92 seconds remaining in regulation. With 18.6 seconds left on the clock, Crumly made an inside layup to make it a three-point game. Stuck was fouled on the ensuing in-bounds pass but missed the front end of a one-and-one with the rebound going to Covenant. The Eagles defense prevented the Scots from getting a shot off, forcing the ball out of bounds with 2.6 seconds to go with Emory calling one final timeout.
With Covenant in-bounding, a long pass to the other side of the court found Barnette in front of the Scots bench who in turn drained a three pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
Covenant continued its momentum from the end of regulation, grabbing its first lead since the 6:30 mark of the first half as Daevon Platt made a pair of free throws to push the Scots ahead 57-55 with 4:31 to play but a quick driving layup by Stuck tied the game again at 57. Unfortunately, the Eagles shooting struggles continued, missing four straight shots as Covenant's lead grew to 64-57.
Senior Matthew Schner converted one of his two free throws to cut the deficit to six with 1:17 remaining but none of the Eagles' final four attempts found the bottom of the net as the Scots sealed the game with free throws down the stretch.
Emory returns to the court following the holidays as the team will host the Emory Holiday Classic on December 29th and 30th with Wisconsin-Whitewater, Birmingham-Southern and LaGrange making the trip to Atlanta.