WISE, VA. – Darius Simmons became the 54^th player in the 100 years of Lenoir-Rhyne Men's Basketball to top 1,000 career points as the Bears defeated UVA Wise 98-63 on Wednesday evening. The Bears posted their first 30-point win since 2018 and nearly broke the single game team record for assists with 29, narrowly missing the mark of 31 set in 2000.

GAME INFORMATION:
Final: Lenoir-Rhyne 98, UVA Wise 63
Records: Lenoir-Rhyne (4-1, 4-1 SAC) | UVA Wise (0-6, 0-6 SAC)
Location: David J. Prior Convention Center

STATS AND INFO:
- Simmons entered the game with 995 career points and teammate R.J. Gunn is 13 points away from joining Simmons in the 1,000-point club
- Lenoir-Rhyne went 7-of-8 from the free throw line and have converted 32-of-34 from the charity stripe over the past two games
- This was just the third all-time matchup between the two programs as this is the second season in the South Atlantic Conference for UVA Wise
- This marked the 60^th win in the Lenoir-Rhyne head-coaching career for Everick Sullivan
- 17 different players saw action in the blowout victory

FIRST HALF:
- It only took a couple of minutes for Simmons to reach 1k points as the redshirt senior buried a free throw 5:11 into the contest
- LR shot 65 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes and outrebounded the hosts 18-10
- The Bears forced nine turnovers and turned those into 19 points on the offensive end
- Simmons finished with 16 points in the first half and went 6-of-8 to maximize his 12 minutes played
- Freshman Tim Steele had nine points in the first half on 4-of-5 shooting and R.J. Gunn had eight

SECOND HALF:
- It was more of the same in the second half as the Bears built the lead to as much as 40 with 4:03 left to play
- Zim Fields connected on both of his attempts in the final 20 minutes and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field on the game
- Armon Muldrew scored eight second half points and Nas Tyson hit a pair of 3-pointers.

ABOUT THE BEARS:
- 13 different players scored for Lenoir-Rhyne
- Simmons finished with 21 points in 19 minutes and went 8-of-11 from long range
- Steele finished with a career-high 14 and missed just two shots on the game
- Six different players connected on a 3-pointer

NOTABLE CAVALIERS:
- Cameron Whiteside came into the game as the nation's leading scorer at 29.0 points per game and finished with 20 points and eight boards
- The Cavs were held to just 37.5 percent shooting from the field and 17.6 percent from long range
- The Bears outrebounded UVA Wise 43-28

UP NEXT:
Lenoir-Rhyne travels to Carson-Newman on Saturday for a 4:30 p.m. tipoff.