Game recaps and notes from around the South Atlantic Conference:

CARSON-NEWMAN - The Carson-Newman Eagles did not play last week due to the Belmont Abbey game being postponed due to inclement weather. The Eagles return to action on January 3 as they play at Alabama-Huntsville at 7 p.m.

CATAWBA - The Indians were idle last week. They travel to Honolulu this week to play games against Midwestern State and St. Joseph's.

LENOIR-RHYNE - The Lenoir-Rhyne College Men’s Basketball Team (3-6) lost both its games last weekend the 2005 AASU Chatham Orthopaedic Christmas Classic, falling to Armstrong Atlantic State on Friday (66-55) before falling to No. 1-ranked Montevallo (73-55) Saturday afternoon … The Bears have now lost four straight games and will not play again until Thursday, December 29, when they host the Lenoir-Rhyne/Moretz Sports Men’s Basketball Classic ... Against Armstrong Atlantic State, the Bears appeared to be in control early, jumping out to a 21-6 lead seven minutes into the game … However, the Pirates began to rally and a 12-4 run closed the gap to 33-30 at intermission … From there, AASU took complete control in the second half and a 25-6 run gave AASU a 58-45 advantage and the Pirates held a least a nine-point lead the rest of the way … Despite the loss, sophomore forward Reggie Bratton (Charlotte, N.C.) scored a career-high 21 points on eight-of-10 shooting and sophomore guard Josh Rudder (Graham, N.C.) added 11 points but was scoreless in the final 25:42 of the game and saw his streak of 20-or-more points in a game snapped at four … Jamaal Galloway led AASU with 24 points including six treys … Against Montevallo on Saturday, the Falcons showed why they were the No. 1-ranked team in the country, scoring the first 13 points of the game and building a lead to as much as 27 … The Bears shot just 15 percent (two-of-13) from behind the three-point line and committed 20 turnovers in the losing effort … Bratton and sophomore forward Josh Kindred (Holly Springs, N.C.) led the Bears with 11 points apiece … Marcus Kennedy (Birmingham, Ala.) spearheaded Montevallo’s attacking, finishing with a game-high 22 points on 11-of-14 shooting … Lenoir-Rhyne will next play Shaw on Day One of the L-R/Moretz Sports Men’s Basketball Classic Thursday, December 29, at 6 p.m.

MARS HILL - MHC split their games last week … They won on the road at Lincoln Memorial 66-60 and then lost at home to Francis Marion, 71-52 … MHC is 5-5 on the season and will take some time off for the Holidays before returning to action on January 2 when they return to action at Anderson College at 7 p.m. … In the first game of the week, The Lincoln Memorial men must feel as though a curse has been placed on them after losing two close games this week to South Atlantic Conference opponents … After falling on Tuesday evening to Tusculum College after leading for approximately 38 minutes of a game that went 45 due to the overtime period, the LMU men fell 66-60 Thursday evening at the hand of the Lions of Mars Hill College after leading by 12 with less than seven minutes to go … To the Lions credit, when their offense needed a boost, Marques Maxwell and Walt Baxley found ways to score in the final minutes to help lift Mars Hill to Victory … However, it may be the Lions defense that pushed the Railsplitters into their eighth loss of the year … The Railsplitters finished the night with 24 turnovers, more then fifteen of those coming in the second half at critical points down the stretch … Another contributing factor could have been the three games the Railsplitters had played in the past five days … From early in the game it was clear the LMU guards had no legs to be shooting the perimeter shots that continually fell short off the front of the rim … Baxley led all scorers with 25 points, while Maxwell finished the night with 21 … Also in double figures for the Lions was Jamison McIver who came off the bench to score 10, while teammate Chris Aline carried MHC on the glass by pulling 11 boards … In the second game of the week, the Lions lost to non-conference rival Francis Marion University Saturday afternoon in Stanford Arena by a score of 71-52 … Vony Rivers (Burton, SC) and Rodrick Burton (Taylors, SC) scored 13 points apiece while Raymond Dorsey (Florence, SC) added 12 points to lead the Patriots to their sixth win of the year … Michael Jenkins (Goose Creek, SC) hit a 3-pointer on the Patriot’s first possession of the game (19:41) and FMU never trailed the rest of the contest … MHC struggled shooting the ball early in the first half while FMU took a 13-point lead (16-3) with 14:56 left in the first frame after Dorsey hit a layup … FMU started the game 5-for-5 from the field with four of those shots coming from behind the arc … Reinaldo Charles (Miami, FL) gave FMU their biggest first half lead of 20 points (29-9) with 6:01 left in the opening period when he hit 1-of-2 free throws … MHC fought back and went on a 17-to-7 run to close out the first half and trim the Patriot’s lead to 10 points (36-26) at the intermission … FMU came out of the locker room and scored 12 unanswered points to take a 22-point advantage with 15:19 left in regulation after Marchello Hamilton (Newark, NJ) hit the second of two foul shots … MHC cut the deficit to 17 points on two occasions but that was as close as the Lions would get … FMU hit 52 percent (13-25) of their shots in the final stanza to obtain the 19-point victory … FMU scored 28 points in the paint, 21 points off Lion miscues and received 26 points off their bench … Rivers led the Patriots in rebounding with seven. FMU hit 47.4 percent (27-57) f the field goal attempts in the contest and won the rebound battle, 40-31 … Marques Maxwell (West Palm Beach, FL) led MHC with 17 points while Walt Baxley (Winston-Salem, NC), the South Atlantic Conference’s lead scorer, was held to just eight points in the game … Baxley entered the contest averaging 26.6 points per game.

NEWBERRY - The Indians were idle last week after their schedule game at Anderson College on Saturday was postponedpostponed due to widespread power failure in upstate South Carolina. A makeup date will be announced later ... Newberry’s next action will be Thursday in North Charleston against Charleston Southern.

PRESBYTERIAN - Presbyterian College (10-3) posted a 1-2 mark this past week with a victory over No. 21 USC Upstate74-63 at home this past Wednesday, but dropped a pair of games over the weekend to No. 1 University of Montevallo (59-52) and Armstrong Atlantic State University (65-56) at the Chatham Orthopaedics Holiday Classic in Savannah, Ga. ... PC opened the week with a 74-63 victory over No. 21 USC Upstate at home on December 14. Sophomore forward Drew Biggs (Alpharetta, Ga.) led four players in double figures with a team-best 17 points on four-of-six shooting from three-point range. Seniors Tray Ballenger (Wellford, S.C.) and Johann Collins (Raleigh, N.C.) each added 13 points apiece while redshirt sophomore Martynas Versinskas (Kaunas, Lithuania) added 11 points and six boards coming off the bench. Jay Free led the Spartans with a game-high 19 points. PC dominated the backboards (34-21) and shot 57.4 percent from the floor on the night ... Ballenger’s 17 points and Collins’ 11 points and nine boards weren’t enough as the No. 24 Blue Hose suffered a 59-52 loss at the hands of No. 1 University of Montevallo this past Friday. PC fought back from a double-figure deficit in the second half, but could not catch the Falcons. The Blue Hose did win the battle of the boards (38-31), but turned the ball over 20 times including 12 in the first half. Greg Brown of Montevallo led all scorers with 19 points on six-of-11 shooting from the field ... Armstrong Atlantic State placed four players in double figures led by Darly Massamba’s 15 points to lead the Pirates to a 65-56 victory over Presbyterian College Saturday night. PC placed three players in double figures as Collins, sophomore guard Pat Kiscaden (Oviedo, Fla.), and freshman guard Bryan Bostic (Norcross, Ga.) each scored 12 points apiece. PC and AASU were dead even on the backboards (31-31), but the Blue Hose turned the ball over 23 times and AASU closed the game on a 11-2 run for seal the victory ... The Blue Hose are using a balanced offensive attack and a stingy defense this season. PC has six players averaging atleast 7.5 ppg this season. Defensively, the Blue Hose are holding opponents to 63.5 ppg and hold a +6.4 rebound margin over their opponents. PC’s last 10 opponents are averaging only 60.8 ppg ... Sophomore forward Drew Biggs (Alpharetta, Ga.) has played a key role in the team’s success this season. Biggs is averaging 9.2 ppg, 2.1 rpg, and shooting 44.7 percent from the field, a team-best 50.9 percent from three-point range, and 78.1 percent from the line ... Junior guard Quinton Ferrell has stepped up to the challenge as taking over the starting point guard duties for the injured preseason All-SAC selection, junior Sean Dixon. Ferrell is averaging 1.8 ppg, 3.8 apg, 1.2 spg ... The Blue Hose return to action on Friday, December 30 by hosting the Bobcats of Georgia College & State University at 7:00 pm.

TUSCULUM - The Tusculum Pioneers improved its record to 9-3 with a pair of wins last week to increase its winning streak to three in a row… Tusculum mounted two second half rallies in posting an 87-77 overtime win over Lincoln Memorial and a 76-67 home victory against USC Aiken… In both wins, senior guard Donald Sexton recorded consecutive 23-point performances… In the win over LMU, the Pioneers rallied from a 10-point deficit with three minutes left in regulation capped off by Douglas Tshomba’s three-pointer with two-tenths of a second left, sending the game into overtime… In the extra period, the Pioneers outscored the Railsplitters by a 16-6 margin, including 10 points by Sexton… LMU out-rebounded TC by a 45-37 margin, but the Pioneers converted 21 points from 20 turnovers by the visitors… Chris Poore added 15 points, while Tshomba and Larry Minnefee posted 12 and 11 points, respectively… In the victory over USC Aiken, TC fell behind early 15-6, but used an 8-0 run in the final minutes of the opening half to trail 29-27… The second period saw 11 lead changes, but with the score tied 56-56 with 5:37 remaining, Tusculum went on a 10-0 run over the next two minutes… Tusculum is 5-1 this season when trailing at the half… Matt Farus contributed 14 points, including 9-for-9 at the foul line… Jordan Lear and Poore accounted for 10 points each… The game against USC Aiken was the 100th men’s basketball game played at Pioneer Arena… TC is 65-35 all-time at Pioneer Arena… Tusculum’s 9-3 record matches the 12-game start the Pioneers had two years ago as TC finished 19-8 and won its first South Atlantic Conference Championship… TC also opened 9-3 in 1992-93 en route to a 22-11 record, the last time TC posted 20 victories in a season.

WINGATE - Sophomore guard/forward Sean Barnette led the Bulldogs in scoring with 19 points as Wingate topped Limestone 86-73 at Gaffney, S.C. Saturday night ... The Limestone contest was Wingate’s only action last week. Barnette hit seven-of-12 field goals and three-of-five three-point field goals as the Bulldogs avenged an earlier loss to the Saints. Wingate is 6-3 overall entering the Christmas holidays ... For the season, Barnette is averaging 17.0 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game. Also, he is hitting 50.9 percent of his field goals ... Five Bulldogs hit double digits against Limestone. In addition to Barnette’s 19-point effort, Bryan Grier (15), Fernando Powell (11), Sam Carlisle (11) and Justin Baker (10) hit double figures in points ... Grier had a double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds. He added three blocked shots, giving the redshirt sophomore center a SAC-best 44 blocks on the season. Carlisle’s 11 points is a career-high for the true freshman ... Barnette (17.0 points per game), Grier (14.0 ppg) and Baker (12.7 ppg) average double figures for the Bulldogs. Powell’s recent offensive explosion (35 points in Wingate’s last two games) has pulled his average to 8.6 points per game ... Senior guard/forward Shaun Kirkland is knocking on the double-digit door, averaging 9.3 points per game. Kirkland pulls down 3.4 rebounds per game, third on the team to Grier (9.2 rpg) and Barnette (5.4 rpg).