Box Score CLINTON, Miss. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) men's basketball team saw its season-opening losing skid extend to seven games with a 72-66 non-conference road loss to the Mississippi College (MC) Choctaws at A.E. Wood Coliseum on Saturday evening.
 
SHC took an early 6-2 lead over the Choctaws (2-0) and held an 11-7 advantage at the first media timeout at 15:18 of the 1^st half. By the 12:55 mark, the Badger lead had grown to 19-9 as Spring Hill began to find success on the inside. With nine minutes left in the half, the Badgers remained ahead by 10 points at 23-13 as neither defense refused to give ground until Walter Massey of SHC stretched the margin out to 25-13 with a jumper at 8:13.
 
Raphael Jones of the Badgers knocked down a jumper that was followed 30 seconds later by a layup from Brandon Fischer to hand SHC a 33-17 cushion with just four minutes left in the 1^st half. Massey and Jones then added a jumper each as the score reached 41-24 at 1:48, but two free throws and a 3-pointer by the Choctaws just before the half cut the SHC lead to 43-31 at the intermission.
 
Out of the locker room, the Choctaws knocked down two free throws and a 3-pointer to make it a 43-36 Badger lead at 18:29 and an MC layup at 17:32 suddenly made it just a five-point SHC lead with 17:32 on the scoreboard. Jones would put the Badgers back up by seven points at 46-39 with a 3-pointer at 15:57 and Massey made it 48-39 with another SHC jumper at 14:44, but Stacey Mack of MC answered with a 3-pointer at 14:21 to pull the Choctaws to within 48-42.
 
Jones continued to roll in just his second appearance in Badger purple as he dropped in another 3-pointer with 13 minutes remaining, but consecutive lay ups by the Choctaws sliced the lead down to 51-48 with 12 minutes remaining. Byron McCall of MC connected on a layup to make it 51-50, but Jack Morrissey of SHC responded with a 3-pointer on the other end as the score stood at 54-50 in favor of the Badgers at 8:49.
 
Darius Kennedy made two free throws for MC and the teams traded baskets as the action heated up over the final nine minutes of play with Spring Hill holding a 60-56 lead with 6:37 left in the game. The Choctaws would wrest away their first lead of the game at 61-60 with a 3-pointer by Antonio Johnson with 5:50 showing and from there the teams would trade the lead four times over the next minute with MC holding a 65-64 margin at 2:18.
 
Out of the time out, MC found another layup at 2:07 and Massey drained a jumper at 1:30, but DeOndre Haynes connected for two points as the Choctaws clawed out a 69-66 lead with 50 seconds to play. A free throw by Haynes at 12 seconds and a final missed 3-point attempt by SHC at 6 seconds would seal the final decision.
 
Massey scored 20 points for Spring Hill with Jones adding 14 points as SHC shot 38.2% (26-68) from the floor and 24.1% (7-29) from 3-point distance. The Badgers hauled down 43 rebounds and MC took in 37 boards. Significantly, SHC made just 7-of-12 (.583) of their free throws while MC completed 17-of-19 (.895) of their attempts.
 
MC was paced by Haynes with 19 points, Johnson with 16 points and Mack with 13 points as the Choctaws shot 42.1% (24-57) overall and 33.3% (7-21) from 3-point range. Both teams suffered 11 turnovers with the Badgers taking away four steals and MC earning five takeaways.
 
The Badgers (0-7) will return home to the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center on Monday at 7 p.m. when they host the University of West Alabama (UWA) Tigers (2-1) in a non-conference rematch of a game from last week when UWA took a 63-56 victory in Livingston.