MISENHEIMER — Coming off a USA South Tournament championship win, the Pfeiffer men’s basketball team was defeated in its first-ever NCAA Division III Tournament appearance.
The Falcons’ (18-8) nine-game winning streak was snapped on Friday night in Newport News, Va., as the Roanoke College Maroons (25-5) escaped with a 71-70 first-round tournament win, holding Pfeiffer accountable for squandering an 18-point, second-half lead.
Pfeiffer entered halftime with a 38-28 lead but allowed Roanoke to outscore the Falcons by a margin of 43-32 in the second half of the contest. With 11:43 left in the game, the Falcons held on to a promising 57-39 lead before the Maroons outscored their opponent 32-13 for the rest of the way to a slim one-point victory.
It marked Pfeiffer’s first loss since a home loss on Jan. 26, and only the team’s second loss dating back to Jan. 11.
Senior guard and USA South Tournament MVP Daymon Beckwith led the Falcons with a game-high 20 points, while senior guard Donte Forrester-Jhag added 17 points for Pfeiffer. Falcon starters Doug Smith (two points), Alex Cunningham (five points), and Justin Gaten (six points) each fell well short of their usual scoring output.
Pfeiffer was limited to 34.9% shooting from the field and 21.9% shooting from behind the arc — the team averaged 48.1% and 35% shooting in those two categories, respectively, throughout the season.
For the Maroons, season-leading scorer Joshua McClary kept up his pace as he topped his roster with 19 points and five rebounds; junior guard Marcus Morgan posted 18 points as sophomore forward Gavin O’Malley approached double-double territory with nine points and nine rebounds.
Following its victory, Roanoke went on to slip past Christopher Newport (23-6) in a 77-75 second-round matchup the following day; the Maroons will now face Catholic University (24-5) on Friday.
While Pfeiffer’s first NCAA Division III Tournament game ended in a loss, the school’s sixth overall NCAA Tournament appearance still marked a team riding on its most successful season since leaving NCAA Division II and beginning play in the USA South during the 2018-19 campaign.
As both the USA South regular-season champions and the USA South Tournament champions, eighth-year coach Pete Schoch and the Falcons improved greatly after slinking to back-to-back 10-win seasons in the previous two years.
Next season, the Falcons will aim to repeat as conference champions as they look to build on the foundation set in their recent 18-win campaign.