Box Score Atlanta, GA - The Piedmont College men's basketball team watched the Eagles of Emory University ride a hot-shooting first half to an 83-65 victory earlier tonight as the Lions could not pick up a road win to avoid a fourth loss in a row.  Having started out 4-1 on the season, the Lions have struggled as of late as the young team from Demorest has played a team who competed in last season's NCAA National Tournament for the third straight game earlier tonight falling to Emory by 18.

Piedmont's Jessie Jenkins scored the first bucket of the game and the Lions held a one-point lead with just over three minutes gone in the contest before seeing Emory go on a 14-5 run over the next five minutes to take control at home.  The Eagles would continue to catch fire in the first half shooting better than 57% in the opening 20 minutes including a 7-of-14 showing from three-point land to hold a dominating 49-24 lead at the halftime break.

As the second half started, the Eagles stayed in front pushing their lead as high as 27 in the early going on a Michael Florin fastbreak layup off one of 18 Lion turnovers on the night.  The young Lions continued to battle though to the delight of first-year Head Coach Greg Neeley as his team outscored the hosting Eagles 15-12 in the first six minutes of the second half.

Despite the work from the visiting team, Piedmont still trailed by 22 points at that 14:00 minute mark facing a tough uphill climb to give the Eagles a problem at home.

Emory pushed its lead to within one of their largest margin of the game at the 6:50 mark of the second half at 71-45 as the Lions could not close the gap in the second half after the Eagles pulled away in the opening period.  The Eagles went on to tie that largest lead just a few minutes later taking a 28-point advantage with just over four minutes to play though Piedmont continued to battle until the end as Austin Thompson's jumper with 20 seconds remaining put the final margin at 18 points with Emory winning 83-65.

No Lions were in double-digits on the night in the scoring column as Jessie Jenkins led the team with his nine points on 3-of-6 shooting while four of his teammates followed closely behind with their eight including Chris Meeks, Alton Honors II, Brian Edwards and Jordyn Propst.  For Propst, his eight was a new career high as he had tallied nine points in his previous five games combined while the single-digit total for Honors II ends a four-game, double-digit scoring streak for the junior from Plant City, Florida. 

Honors II has been held to single digits in the scoring column just one other time in 2013-14, a nine-point performance in a road win over Truett-McConnell College, and led all Lions with his 15.1 points per game coming into tonight.

Propst also led the team in rebounding with his seven boards as he connected on four of his five shots from the field with his only miss coming on his only three-point attempt of the night. Veteran Aaron Thrams was second in rebounds with his six while the young Edwards added five more to the cause.

Emory shot better than 44% from the floor and connected on ten of their 30 three-point tries while Piedmont shot just under 40% from the field and only hit three of their 20 tries from downtown. Emory held the rebounding edge 45-37 and also forced 18 Piedmont turnovers while picking up just 13 of their own.

With the loss, Piedmont falls to 4-5 dropping below .500 for the first time in the Greg Neeley era at PC.  The Lions will look forward now to getting back in their home gym for the first time since a December 1st win over Berry when they play host to another SAA member in Sewanee-The University of the South on Tuesday, January 7th. 

Tip off against the Tigers on the 7th is set for 7:00 pm in Cave Arena.  Coverage will be provided courtesy of the Mane Event Broadcasting Network as well as WCON radio.