COLUMBIA, S.C.— Montreat's men's basketball team played the finale of a three-game road trip on Wednesday in Columbia, S.C. After dropping their last two Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) contests, the Cavaliers (14-9, 8-7 AAC) could not get back in the win column as they lost to the Rams by a score of 98-89.
 
Montreat opened the scoring with a layup from Elijah Carson. From then on, the half was controlled by the hosts. CIU (16-4, 11-4 AAC) jumped out to a 13-4 lead early in the period. The Cavs chipped back slowly and took the lead with a Carson free throw; however, the Rams edged back in front with a 3-pointer at the buzzer from Will Kelly. Kelly ultimately ended with 43 points as the Rams led by two at the break (38-36).
 
The home team came out of the intermission to the tune of a 13-2 run, again jolting in front of the Cavs in the early minutes of the period. Montreat was forced to play catch up basketball and did a good job in stretches. RJ Manginello fought back with 20 points in the second half alone. After trailing by as many as 23 points in the frame (74-51), Montreat managed to cut the Ram advantage to just six points with under a minute left (93-87). The remainder of the conference matchup consisted of five free throws from the Rams to put the game out of reach for Montreat.

"I thought we did a really good job defensively for 35 minutes," said head coach Anthony Barringer. "The first five minutes of the second half, they threw a haymaker, and we were playing catch up the rest of the night. It's hard to beat anyone, at any point, when one guy has 40, especially the good teams."
 
Manginello finished with a career-high 25 points. Tonight marked his third 20-plus point performance in his last four games. Four other Cavs finished with double-digit points as well. Jarden Maze (16), Jack Keller (13), AJ Baskerville (13) and Carson (10) all contributed to the Montreat score. Carson had the most rebounds with nine, while Baskerville followed closely with eight.
 
Montreat only had four assists as a team in the loss while Columbia International dished out 13 of them. The Cavs came away with more points from turnovers than the Rams, outscoring them 19-9 in the category. Despite the defeat, the Cavaliers also had more steals (7-3), blocks (2-1) and points in the paint (52-28) than CIU. Altogether, Montreat shot 44.9 percent from the field (35-78 FG), 20.0 percent from behind the arc (5-20 3-pt FG) and 60.9 percent from the stripe (14-23 FT).
 
Up next, the Cavs will play their last home game on the campus of UNC Asheville inside Kimmel Arena. They host the Bryan College Lions on Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. The Cavaliers look forward to their return to the McAlister Gymnasium on Feb. 12.