LYNCHBURG, VA – Jake Duncan (Williamsburg, VA / Williamsburg Christian) drained a three-pointer with five seconds left to put Hamden-Sydney back on the winning side with a 63-61 win over Lynchburg College on Wednesday night. H-SC is now 11-5 overall and 4-3 in the ODAC while Lynchburg is 10-6 and 3-4.

Hampden-Sydney got off to another slow start on offense, taking over four minutes to score while going in a 9-0 hole. The Tigers went to their bench at 15:37 and got the energy up and started clawing their way back into the game. Nick Chase (Wilmington, NC / Coastal Christian) got H-SC on the board at 15:23. The Hornets continued to lead by nine, 20-11, with 6:26 remaining in the first half.

The tide of the game changed from there as the offense started clicking and the defense went in lockdown. Mike Murray (Norfolk, VA / Norfolk Christian) and Guilherme Guimarães (Ribeirão Preto, Brazil / Miller School) scored the next nine points to tie the game at 20-20 at the 2:07 mark, and two freebies from Josh Katowitz (Raleigh, NC / Heritage) gave the Tigers their first lead of the game at 1:14. Three consecutive free throws put the Tigers out in front by nine before Daniel Rowe made two from the line, but Leon Hargrove (Raleigh, NC / Middle Creek) tipped in a missed three pointer at the buzzer to send H-SC into the half leading 27-22 as they outscored the Hornets 16-2 over the last 6:26.

Lynchburg got off to a good start in the second half and tied the game at 29-29 just three minutes into the frame. It remained a tied game, 32-32, with 15:42 to go, but Hampden-Sydney went on a big 18-3 run over the next six minutes and change to take a commanding 50-35 advantage at 9:14. Lynchburg went on a momentum-swinging 16-5 spurt of their own, keyed by two three-pointers from Rionn Pradia, to trim their deficit down to just four, 55-51, with 4:51 remaining.

An old-school three-point play from Zach Burnett followed by an NBA-range three pointer gave Lynchburg their first lead of the second half at 59-58 at 1:46. Greg Lewis (Mechanicsville, VA / Hanover) gave the lead back to H-SC off two free throws with 44 ticks left on the clock, but Lynchburg needed just 15 seconds to take back a one-point lead off an Omar Kemp layup. Hampden-Sydney turned over the ball with 16 seconds left on an out of bounds violation and called a timeout to set up the defense.

The Tigers looked to try to get a steal before committing a foul and executed the defense to perfection as William Scott (Virginia Beach, VA / Norfolk Academy) got in a tie up with Rowe, an 80% free throw shooter, to force a jump ball with the possession arrow in favor of Hampden-Sydney with 12.7 left on the clock. Hampden-Sydney took another timeout to draw up an offensive play and found Duncan on the perimeter for a triple to put H-SC ahead 63-61 with five seconds to go. Lynchburg called a timeout at halfcourt with 2.7 seconds left, and Alex Smith (Whitsett, NC / T. Wingate Andrews) deflected the inbounds pass into the backcourt where Lyndon White was forced to heave up a desperation three from deep in the backcourt.

Duncan scored a game-high 16 points, just two shy of his career high, while shooting 5-8 overall, 3-6 from three, and 3-4 from the free throw line. Murray tacked on nine points and three assists while Alex Smith tallied six points and a team-best six boards. The post player rotation of Guimarães, Katowitz, Chase, and Hunter Kuehn (Raleigh, NC / Sanderson) helped limit Lynchburg's leading scorer to just six points to go along with four turnovers and fouling out.

Burnett scored a game-high 23 points, making 8-of-16 field goals and going 5-of-9 beyond the arc. White stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, eight caroms, and five assists while Kemp added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Lynchburg outshot H-SC overall and from the three point line, but Hampden-Sydney went 18-24 at the free throw line compared to a 7-14 performance for the Hornets. The bench also failed to provide much production for LC as six players played 52 minutes but managed more turnovers (8) and fouls (8) than points (6) and only grabbed four rebounds.

Hampden-Sydney travels to Winchester, VA, on Saturday for a 4 pm game at Shenandoah University.