Reed Dungan
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - It was an intense night in Mississippi as the visiting Dalton State Roadrunners won on the road against William Carey (Miss.) 81-79, at Clinton Gym.
The Knights opened with an early 8-point lead at 12-4 with17:05 left.
The Roadrunners have rarely trailed this season for long, and a blitzing rally closed the gap with a good field goal by J'Quayveon Williams to tie the game 12-12 with 15:35. The two teams would continue to press each other to their limits and end the first half tied 47-47.
The fierce game never let up as each team went on to score 12 points to keep the match tied at 52-52 with 14:20 left. Dalton State would begin to pull away with a 12-4 run that would put the Roadrunners ahead at 64-56 with 9:45 left. The Roadrunners would fight hard to maintain their lead, but a rallying comeback by the Knights was capped by a good 3-point shot by Troy Salvant would shrink the gap to 2 points at 73-71 with5:39 left.
The game looked to be bound for overtime as the Knights tied the game at 73-73 with 1:21 left, but a defensive foul by Knight's player Maurice Stephens at 0:03 would set the Roadrunners up for a possible game-winning set of free throws. Dalton State would put their hopes on Reed Dungan. Dungan would hit the free throws and the Roadrunners would get a late defensive stop to win the top ranked battle 81-79.
The Roadrunners improved their record to 14-1 overall, 6-1 in the SSAC, with the win. Dalton State was led by the outstanding performance of Reed Dungan with seven 3-point shots and 24 points overall. Isaiah Boxfollowed with 16 points, and J'Quayveon was the third Roadrunner in double figures with 13 points. Carnilious Simmons and Mike Hardencontributed 9 and 8 rebounds respectively.
With the loss, William Carey (Miss.) falls to 11-4 overall, 5-2 in the SSAC. The Knights were led by Ashton Woodson with an impressive 20 points. Leo Garnett was the second Knight's player to be in double-figures and went 7-11 from the free throw line for 18 points.
The Roadrunners finish their road trip against Blue Mountain (Miss.) on Monday at 4 p.m.