SALEM, Va. – Kenyon College (3-7) gave the Maroons of Roanoke College all it could handle but the Lords eventually fell by an 84-76 count on Saturday afternoon during the Cregger Classic.
 
The Lords were led by Tim Connolly who tallied a team-high 21 points while recording game-highs in assists (6) and steals (4). Brien Comey contributed 19 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots while Ethan Shapiro came off the bench to score a career-best 15 points.
 
First-half action was extremely close as neither team held a lead greater than six points. Within the first five minutes of the half, there were three ties and four lead changes. Following an Alexander Powell three-pointer, the Maroons (9-1) got a pair of baskets from Carter Wright and Dustin Hassell to give Roanoke its biggest lead at 28-22 with 10:41 left in the half.
 
Kenyon responded though with an 11-0 run to attain its biggest lead of the half. The run started with a free throw from Will Sigl and was finished with a foul shot from Connolly. Tyler Kimble added a three-ball as well during the stretch. But the back-and-forth first period went back in favor of the home team at the 4:20 mark as Joey Miller connected with a long ball. Roanoke held the lead after that and took a 47-43 lead at the break.
 
Both team shots well in the first frame as RC hit 55.6% of its shots while Kenyon hit at a 56% clip.
 
In the second half, things were tight again.
 
Wright hit a three-pointer to give Roanoke its biggest lead (58-49) and later hit a free throw with 12:46 left to move the score to 59-53. The Lords responded again and found back-to-back jumpers from Shapiro with under 10 minutes left which brought the score to 63-61 Roanoke. Shapiro delivered again with 7:40 left and pulled the deficit to two again (67-65).
 
But for another time, the Maroons didn't allow Kenyon to retake the lead as John Caldwell and Miller hit layups and helped RC go up seven (72-65) with 5:35 remaining.
 
From that point, Roanoke hit free throws the remainder of the game while Kenyon went 4-of-10 from the field including missing all five 3-point attempts.
 
The Lords will try and get back in the win column tomorrow when they play Montclair State University in the consolation game at noon. The Red Hawks lost earlier in the day to McDaniel College 63-53.