Cumberland men's basketball dropped game one of the Mid-South Conference/Crossroads Challenge 72-53 against Marian University.
Cumberland (2-1) struggled from behind the arc, shooting 3-16. The Phoenix started the game off strong but they could not find a rythym in the second half, getting outscored 37-19 by Marian (4-0).
Jordan Stephens led the Phoenix in scoring with 12 points while also recording two rebounds and three assists. Tj Stargell was the only other Phoenix to crack double digits with 11 points. Ty'Reek Johnson and Nassir Coleman led the team with six rebounds in the game.
Marian did not have a great shooting night as well, shooting 39.7% from the floor and 27.6% from behind the arc. Christian Harvey led the way for the Knights with 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting. Hayden Langkabel scored 15 while Josh Bryan scored 12 on four threes.
The Phoenix jumped ahead early thanks to an early basket and a pair of free throws by Stargell. After a 6-2 Marian run, MyTrevious Vaughn put the Phoenix back in front with back-to-back threes giving the Phoenix a 17-14 lead with 11:12 left.
Both teams went on a bit of a scoring drought midway through the first half until Cumberland went on a 6-0 run backed up by a strong driving layup from Jordan Stephens that resulted in a three point play. The run gave the Phoenix their largest lead of the half at 27-21 with 7:06 to play.
Marian continued to claw their way back into the game, keeping the Phoenix from putting the game away early. Jordan Stephens added three more layups in the closing minutes, but a last second three by Harvey put the Knights up 35-34 heading into the half.
The Knights started the second half on a 5-0 run before Stargell made a layup to cut the deficit down to 40-36. Before you knew it, Cumberland found themselves trailing by ten with 17 minutes to go after a layup by Langkabel.
The Phoenix cut their deficit down to five with a strong layup by Coleman but the Knights pushed their lead back to ten, three minutes later. Stargell drained a three with 9:48 remaining to bring the score to 56-48 but Marian would go on a 16-5 run to close out the game to give the Phoenix their first loss of the year 72-53.
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