No. 12 Queens Royals fall at home 93-90 to Lenoir-Rhyne Bears in overtime upset
The Queens Royals fought back after falling behind by double digits in the second half against Lenoir-Rhyne on Wednesday.
And they managed to get the game to overtime, but didn’t have enough bodies to finish. Four Queens players fouled out in the extra period as the No. 12 Royals fell to the visiting Bears 93-90 in a South Atlantic Conference upset at Curry Arena.
Senior forward Sean Morgan scored 28 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for Queens (23-4, 17-4), which has suffered back-to-back losses for the first time this season.
The Royals trailed by 13 with eight minutes left in the game, but rallied to send the game to overtime on Marquis Rankin’s steal and three-point play with 10 seconds left in regulation.
But he became the first of the quartet of players to foul out in overtime.
Senior guard Keenan Palmore, who finished with game highs of 36 points and 11 rebounds, scored eight of the Bears’ 10 points in overtime.
“We scrapped, that’s the best way to put it,” Queens coach Bart Lundy said. “We just didn’t have enough left in the tank to finish.”
Todd Withers scored 19 points, Kendall Jones 17 and Rankin 12 for Queens. Will Perry scored 13 and Darrion Evans 12 for Lenoir-Rhyne.
The Royals close the regular season on Saturday at Tusculum. They’ll have one more home game, a first-round South Atlantic Conference tournament game Tuesday.
Three who mattered
Keenan Palmore, Lenoir-Rhyne: Hit 11-of-16 shots from the field and 13-of-18 from the free throw line.
Todd Withers, Queens: The sophomore guard hit a couple of big three-pointers, including one that trimmed L-R’s lead to 46-44 at the half. He was the only Royals’ starter left on the floor at the game’s end.
Sean Morgan, Queens: Scored 17 in the first half to keep the struggling Royals close. Hit 10-of-15 shots from the field.
Observations
Both teams started hot from behind the three-point arc, hitting five-three pointers before the halfway point of the first half. It took each team the rest of the game to match that total.
They said it
“We haven’t been shooting the ball very well. As much as I want to coach them up, when you make shots, things happen for you. We haven’t been making shots.” – Lundy
Worth mentioning
Five senior players were honored before the game – Morgan, Rankin, forward Rob Lewis guard Kendall Jones and guard Ben Richter (ex-Charlotte Christian).
This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 11:19 PM with the headline "No. 12 Queens Royals fall at home 93-90 to Lenoir-Rhyne Bears in overtime upset."