FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Brandon Monk scored a game-high 23 points, including a pair of clutch three-pointers in the game's final five minutes as the Methodist men's basketball team pulled out a 68-64 win over Lynchburg on Saturday afternoon at the Riddle Center.
 
Monk finished 9-of-14 from the floor, including 3-of-4 from behind the arc. He scored 17 of his 23 points after halftime as MU (4-4) rallied from as much as a nine-point deficit in the second half.
 
The Monarchs led by as many as 10 points in the first half, and held a five-point lead (31-26) following Davion Ayabarreno's layup in transition with 1:56 left in the period. The Hornets (4-3) closed the period on a 10-0 burst to take a 36-31 lead into intermission.
 
Devante' Young started the run with a three, and Lyndon White converted a three-point play for a 32-31 Hornet lead with 59 seconds on the clock. Daniel Rowe added a three 20 seconds later, and Omar Kemp spilt a pair of free throws at the five second mark to make cap the first-half scoring.
 
Lynchburg's lead reached as many as nine points as Rowe came up with a steal and scored in transition for a 47-38 lead with 13:26 play before MU began methodically cutting into the deficit.
 
Irving Aughburns scored off a feed from Tabias Hilliard and Hilliard followed with a three pointer to make it a four-point game (47-43) with 11:07 to play. Monk followed with a three pointer of his own to pull the Green and Gold within one point (47-46), and by the 8:09 mark MU had a 52-50 lead after a short jumper by Troynell Reese.
 
Four lead changes followed and Monk's three with 1:54 to play gave the Monarchs a 64-62 lead with 1:54 on the clock. Alex Graves briefly tied the game at 64-64 for Lynchburg, but Monk spilt a pair of free throws with 31 seconds to play for a 65-64 lead. Jay Allen missed a potential go-ahead layup for the Hornets and after securing the defensive rebound, Mike Major was sent to the line where he made two free throws to give MU a 67-64 lead and 16 seconds to play.
 
Rowe missed a tough three pointer with five seconds to play and Ayabarreno made one more free throw to ice the game.
 
Neither team shot above 40.0 percent as MU was at 38.5 percent (20-52) and Lynchburg was 23-of-59 (.390) from the field. The Monarchs shot 82.1 percent from the line (23-28) while Lynchburg made just 14-of-27 free-throw attempts (.519) in the game. Lynchburg was plus five on the glass (40-35).
 
Hilliard and Aughburns each scored nine points, and Reese had eight points and eight rebounds. Jackson Whitley pulled down six boards and blocked five shots.
 
Lynchburg was led by Graves' and White's 17 points apiece. White completed a double-double with 10 rebounds, and Zack Burnett and Rowe each had nine points.
 
Methodist next plays on Dec. 12 at LaGrange beginning at 4:00 pm.