The Montreat men's basketball team has been well-acquainted with close and wrenching losses this season, but head coach Jonathan Bennett said that Saturday's 91-89 conference loss to Reinhardt College was "a heartbreaker."  In dropping to 3-23 overall and 1-12 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference, the Cavaliers let slip away a game that they led for 39-1/2 minutes out of the 40 minutes of game time.

A fast-paced game allowed for several Montreat players to post impressive offensive numbers, with Vince Dombrowski scoring 21 and Terrell Mosley adding 20.  Seth Moore contributed his usual yeomanlike effort with 14 points and 7 rebounds, though that trio was matched by the Eagles' leaders: Carlos Lyles' 23 points, Joseph Odugbela's 18 points, and Will Lewis' 15 points.

But the particularly frustrating aspect of this game is that the homestanding Cavs, playing before devoted fans in McAlister Gymnasium, led by ten points at halftime and for more than 39 minutes of the game and never relinquished that advantage … until the final half-minute of the contest. 

Bennett pointed at a telling statistic when explaining the defeat: "Our kids played really hard, but we just killed ourselves on the defensive glass.  They had 19 offensive rebounds for the game and that was too much for us to overcome."  A shot at the buzzer that would have forced overtime went awry, and the Cavaliers had to swallow another hard loss.

Montreat returns to the hardwood on Wednesday, February 10 when they welcome King College to McAlister for a non-conference tilt that ends a stretch of three straight home games.  Tip-off is at 8:00.