FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Despite a stellar 24-point performance by Brandon Monk, the Methodist men's basketball team fell, 73-61, to the visiting Cougars of Averett University Wednesday night at the March F. Riddle Center.
 
The senior went 10-of-15 from the field, 3-of-3 from the charity stripe and pulled down eight boards in the loss. MU fell to 5-11 overall and 1-4 in the USA South while Averett moved to 12-4 overall and 3-2 in league play.
 
After falling behind 6-2 in the first three minutes, the Monarchs tied the game, 6-6, on a Jackson Whitley breakaway dunk at the 16:37 mark after Whitley blocked Averett's Darin Ketner's three-pointer. A layup by Whitley gave MU its first lead of the game, 8-6, and a layup plus one by Davion Ayabarreno gave Methodist its largest lead of the game, 11-6 at the 15:24 mark of the first period.
 
Back-to-back-to-back treys by Averett, including two by Trevor West, followed by a layup by James Contreras Jr. put the visitors back on top, 21-15, and after MU briefly trimmed its deficit to one (23-22), the Cougars took a five-point lead (33-28) into the break
 
The beginning of the second half was dominated by AU, as it went ahead grabbed a 12-point lead (52-40) after a 19-10 run. Back-to-back three pointers by Hilliard and Monk brought Methodist within eight points (56-48). After a layup by AU's Carter Jones, Monk scored seven consecutive points to bring the deficit to five and a layup by Ayabarreno cut it to three (60-57) on a feed from Monk with 5:19 to play. Monk capped his virtuoso run with another layup to inch MU within a single point (62-61) at the 3:34 to play, but AU held MU scoreless the remainder of the contest, closing out the game on an 11-0 run to seal the win.
 
As a team, MU shot 44.4 percent from the floor (24-54) to Averett's 43.3 percent (29-67). MU was also a perfect 10-for-10 from the line and held a 40-28 edge on the glass, but Averett forced 20 Monarch turnovers while committing just seven.
 
Joining Monk in double-figure scoring were Hilliard and Ayabarreno with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Hilliard also recorded five rebounds, and Ayabarreno notched one steal and one block. Whitley pulled down eight boards and Mike Major tallied five assists. Coming off the bench, Troynell Reese recorded six rebounds and four points in 10 minutes.
 
Bradley Robinson led the Cougars with 20 points. West chipped in 13, including 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc, and Carter Jones and Charles Bryant scored 12 and 10 points, respectively. Jones led AU with seven rebounds, West pulled down six boards and handed out six assists, while James Contreras Jr. had three steals.
 
Methodist will host Huntingdon on Saturday beginning at 4:00 pm.