Mars Hill, N.C. - The Lenoir-Rhyne Men's Basketball Team (10-9, 6-4) escaped with a 77-75 victory over Mars Hill (4-15, 2-8) Saturday in a South Atlantic Conference game at Stanford Arena.? L-R sophomore guard Bryce Hawkins (Charlotte, N.C.) hit the game-winning lay-up with eight seconds left.

Hawkins?hit all four field goal attempts and finished with eight points while Lenoir-Rhyne senior forward Jeff Thomas (Chapel Hill, N.C.) added 16 points off the bench as 10 different players scored for the Bears in the victory.

Mars Hill lost despite a game-high 30 points from Sammy Emile (Lake Worth, Fla.) including 24 in the second half.? The Lions' Terrell Harris (Indiantown, Fla.) added 19 points as well.

Lenoir-Rhyne held a 44-32 advantage entering halftime before Mars Hill, behind Emile, rallied to take the lead in the second half.? The Lions took the lead, 60-59, on a pair of free throws by Emile with 10:39 left in the contest.

The game, which featured seven ties and seven lead changes, went back-and-forth the rest of the way.

Mars Hill led, 75-71, with 2:13 left before Lenoir-Rhyne scored the game's final six points en route to the win.? Hawkins tied the game at 75 with a field goal at the 1:01 mark of the second half before his game-winning lay-up.

Lenoir-Rhyne sophomore forward Allan Jones (Clemmons, N.C.) added 10 points and senior guard Kevin Davis (Charlotte, N.C.) tallied nine points and nine rebounds for the Bears, who avenged an earlier loss to the Lions.

In the next round of South Atlantic Conference games, Lenoir-Rhyne plays at Anderson while Mars Hill visits Newberry.? Both contests are scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m., on Wednesday.