HICKORY, NC - In front of a crowd of nearly 1,400 Bears fans, the Lenoir-Rhyne Men's Basketball team jumped out to a 10-0 lead and never looked back on Saturday, taking down Emory & Henry 103-67 in Hickory. 

13 Bears played in this contest, and 13 Bears scored. A new season-high seven players scored in double figures, led by 15 from Tay Smith. Both Conrad Luczynski (13 points, 13 rebounds) and Ziare Wells (13 points, 11 rebounds) finished with a double-double. 

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: #21 Lenoir-Rhyne 103, Emory & Henry 67
Records: Lenoir-Rhyne 14-3 (11-2 SAC), Emory & Henry 4-13 (2-11 SAC)
Location: Hickory, NC | Shuford Arena

STORY OF THE GAME

• Fueled by fast-break dunks from Hantz Louis-Jeune and Tay Smith, the Bears jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead.
• Back-to-back threes from Smith and Julian Dozier put the Bears up 18-5 just five minutes into the game.
• Sam Martin extended LR's lead to 32-13 with a fast break dunk off the dime from Dozier.
• With just a minute left in the contest, Ziare Wells ignited the crowd with an ally-oop dunk off the pass from Junior Hodnett.
• LR led by 31 (56-25) at the break.
• The Bears cruised in the second half, eventually extending the lead to 40 (93-53) with five minutes to go in the game.
• Shem Sawy scored four quick points near the end of the game to put a stamp on the win.

STATS OF THE MATCH:

• Seven Bears finished in double-figures, led by Tay Smith (15), Conrad Luczynski (13), and Ziare Wells (13). 
• Junior Hodnett led the Bears with five helpers, while Sam Martin tallied three blocks. 
• LR shot 44-81 (54.3%) from the field and 8-20 (40%) from three. 
• The Bears held Emory & Henry to just 20-59 (33.9%) from the field and 9-36 (25%) from three. 
• Lenoir-Rhyne held an incredible 57-23 rebounding advantage over the Wasps.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE:

• This was Lenoir-Rhyne's third game scoring over 100 points this season.
• Dylan Goodman, Seth Reed, and Lucas Mathieu all registered their first career LR points in the game.
• Ziare Wells has now passed the 1000 point mark for his collegiate career (2 years - Monroe University / 1 year - Lenoir-Rhyne)
• The 57 rebounds is just five boards away from tying the all-time LR record of 62 set in the 1992-23 season.
• At halftime the Bears held a wiener dog race in front of over 1,300 fans.

UP NEXT: The Bears will look to continue their success on Wednesday when they host the Limestone Saints. Limestone who was off today, currently has a 7-9 (4-8 SAC) record and are 3-2 in their last five games. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.