FERRUM, Virginia -- The Ferrum College men's basketball team came up big in front of a lively home crowd inside Swartz Gymnasium, knocking off Lynchburg College, 78-73 Wednesday night.

RECORDS
Ferrum (3-4, 1-1 ODAC)
Lynchburg (5-4, 1-1 ODAC)

THE BASICS
The Panthers and the Hornets traded buckets for the majority of the first half. It was Ferrum College that would take the first command of the game, using a late 16-8 run to close the half with the 42-33 advantage.

For Ferrum, it was the bench that created the spark down the stretch of the first half. Kajuan Madden-McAfee led the way with nine points, as Micheal Spraggins added eight points to go with two rebounds in the first stanza. Caleb McReed added three assists and two rebounds for Ferrum as well. For the Hornets, it was Chase Greene leading the way, netting 16 points while adding four rebounds. Tharon Suggs was the next closest to Greene on the stat sheet with four points to go along with three rebounds, a steal and an assist.

The second half would be played back and forth up to the final whistle. Lynchburg cut it to two points with under a minute to play, but Brandon Reeves knocked down the biggest shot of his Panther career as he got a trey to fall off the glass from the top of the key to shut the door on the Hornets.

It was the James Smith Jr. show in the second half for the Panthers, as he came up big for the Panthers in the closing minutes of the game with the ball in his hands. He ended up with 13 points along with three assists and two rebounds. Kalip Jones knocked down a few treys and Reeves recorded five points to lead the Panther charge. For Lynchburg, Greene lit up the scoreboard once again, adding 12 to his game-high 28 point total. Suggs added nine of his own while also recording four rebounds in the closing stanza.

KEY STATS
Ferrum: Smith Jr. 18 pts, 4 ast, 3 reb; Madden-McAfee 10 pts; Jones 9 pts; Reed 9 pts; Plair 4 pts, 9 reb
Lynchburg: Greene 28 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast; Suggs 13 pts, 7 reb; Dunton 10 pts, 2 reb; Thacker 2 pts, 8 reb

BEHIND THE WHISTLE
"Great team effort tonight. Everyone was in tune from the beginning. We shared the ball very well which led to great opportunities. We finally flowed in that side of the ball. I thought defensively we really played well in the first half, but had some breakdown in the 2nd. Overall a good performance, great to get a quality win within our league." --Head Coach Tyler Sanborn

UP NEXT
Coach Sanborn's team will be back in action on the road at Averett University in a non-conference affair Monday, December 8. The first whistle is set for 7 p.m. inside the E. Stuart James Grant Center.