The Lenoir-Rhyne Men’s Basketball Team fell to 1-8 on the road with a tough loss at Mars Hill on Saturday evening, 78-66. The Bears have dropped eight straight away from home since defeating Lees-McRae in their first road game of the year on Nov. 16.

The Bears led by six at 64-58 with 7:09 to play after L.J. McCoy’s fastbreak lay up. However, the Bears would be held to just two points in the final 7:09 as the Lions closed the game on a 20-2 run. Malik LeGania’s lay up with 23 seconds left ended the nearly seven minute scoring drought but it was too little, too late at that point as the basket made it 76-66 in favor of the Lions.

LR missed nine field goal attempts before LeGania’s lay up and Mars Hill countered with eight made baskets in nine attempts in the final 7:09. McCoy and Jalen Johnson combined for 30 points and hit 10-of-19 from the field but no other player reached double figures in scoring for LR.

LeGania had nine points and Nas Tyson added seven and led LR with seven rebounds. LR shot 41.4 percent from the field and hit 11-of-13 from the charity stripe but was just 7-of-21 from long range.

Mars Hill hit 45.3 percent of their shots but caught fire in the second half, shooting at a 54.8 percent clip. Kory Davids had a game-high 23 points and seven assists and Rajuan Conner had eight points and 11 boards.

LR had won 10 in a row over Mars Hill. The last loss against the Lions came in February of 2017. The Bears have scored between 60 and 68 points in each of their past four games.

LR has now dropped six straight games and are scoring just 61 points per game in that stretch. McCoy has 70 3-pointers on the season which is tops in the SAC. He has hit at least one three in 20 of his 21 games this season.

Lenoir-Rhyne drops to 8-13overall, 3-10 in the South Atlantic Conference. The Bears will look to snap their skid when they travel to Wingate on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.