Fayetteville, NC – In the regular season finale, the Southern Virginia University Men's Basketball team (12-13, 5-9 USAS) fell on the road to league foe Methodist (2-23, 2-12 USAS) Saturday afternoon.

For most of the first half, the teams went back and forth, trading baskets, with neither team holding more than a four-point lead.

Methodist looked to open up a lead before the break, scoring five straight points to make the score 32-25 with just over three minutes to play in the half. However, Southern Virginia would close the gap to two following an Abe Connolly 3-pointer and a Koa Baker layup.

The Monarchs would add one more basket just before time expired to increase their lead to four as the teams returned to the locker rooms.

The first five minutes of the second stanza were eerily similar to the first 20, with the teams battling, not giving an inch. Then, the home team would go on a 10-1 scoring run to increase the advantage to 12—the largest of the game for either team.

Southern Virginia, however, would not back down, turning to its three-headed monster of Koa Baker, Shaun Kenedy and Malakai Olson to lead them. The three would combine to score nine of the team's next 11 points to cut the deficit to four with just under 10 minutes of play remaining.

Methodist looked to pull away behind the support of its home crowd, but Baker did everything he could to keep his team in the game, scoring Southern Virginia's next six points.
Following the under-four media timeout, the Monarchs stretched the lead to eight with a Derrion Hicklen layup. Hicklen would knock down a pair of free throws to increase the advantage to nine with a minute and 15 seconds left on the clock.

The next time down the court, Abe Connolly drilled a shot from beyond the arc, making it a six-point game and giving the Knights hope.

That hope would surge following a steal and a layup by Jamarcus Robertson, cutting the deficit to just four with 55 seconds remaining.

Clayton Coe would miss the front end of a one-and-one after being fouled quickly by Olson. The Knights, however, were unable to capitalize, failing on a layup attempt.

After giving up a basket on the other end of the floor, Southern Virginia would make it a three-point game after a Shaun Kenedy shot from deep.

Following two successful free throw attempts from the Monarchs, the Knights would hit another three, this time from 3-point specialist Bryan Tapia who knocked down the shot from the deep corner.

After several minutes of deliberation between referees and scorekeepers, play resumed, with Methodist being forced to call a timeout after nearly receiving a five-second violation on the inbound pass.

Following the timeout, the Monarchs successfully got the ball inbounds, and T.J. East was sent to the line knowing that two made free throws would seal the victory. However, after converting the front end, East failed on his second attempt, awarding the Knights an opportunity to tie the game.

Olson rebounded the ball and passed it up the floor to Robertson, who did well to get a decent look but came up just short on his buzzer-beating attempt.

Southern Virginia was led by Baker (18 points), Kenedy (16 points) and Olson (17 points). Olson also recorded 10 rebounds—ties for a season-high—to register his second double-double of the season.

The Knights will now prepare for the conference tournament, which begins Tuesday, Feb. 21.

For all the most up-to-date information regarding Southern Virginia University men's basketball, visit knightathletics.com and follow @knight_hoops on Instagram.