Men's Basketball | 12/16/2012 5:01:00 PM

Box Score DANVILLE, Va. -- The Methodist men's basketball team dropped a 77-66 contest at Averett University on Sunday afternoon.
 
The Cougars outscored the Monarchs, 43-24, in the second half to secure the win and improve to 4-5 (1-0 USA South) while Methodist fell to 1-6 (0-1 USA South) on the season.
 
After the Monarchs' Brandon Monk broke a 53-53 tie with a dunk to put MU up by two at 7:04 mark of the second half, Averett closed the game on a 24-11 scoring run to secure the win. A pair of free throws by Paul Porter tied the game at 55-55 with 6:51 to play and Justin Pierce gave AU a lead it would not surrender with a jumper at the 6:13 mark.
 
In the first half, the Monarchs took a 17-point lead (28-11) following a layup by Bryan Hockaday with 8:05 showing on the clock. The Cougars though, rallied to pull to within four points (35-31) on a layup by Carter Jones just over two minutes before halftime. Methodist was able to double its advantage to eight points (42-34) before heading into halftime.
 
James Whitehead led the Monarchs with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting. Christian McRae added 12 points off the bench, hitting five of his six field goal attempts. Hockaday finished with six points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
 
Justin Pierce led the Cougars with 34 points, hitting 12-of-19 shots and 9-of-11 free throws. As a team, AU shot 29-of-34 from the free-throw line, compared to just 5-of-9 for the Monarchs. Marquis Scott added 15 points and seven rebounds for the Cougars and Porter added 10 points in the victory.
 
The Monarchs return to action on Dec. 29 at the CSI Tournament of Heroes at the College of Staten Island.