The UVA Wise Highland Cavaliers never once took the lead against the Mars Hill Lions and fell 88-66 in a South Atlantic Conference (SAC) home opening-battle on Tuesday, Nov. 23. 

Coming into the David J. Prior Convocation Center to face the Cavs, the Mars Hill Lions (2-3, 2-1 SAC) had only barely snuck out their sole win against the Newberry Wolves by a buzzer-beater three pointer the week before, and had lost their three games prior. The Lions had consistently been shooting below 40 percent from field goal range and their reliability from the free-throw line had been less than stellar in their first four games. Yet, Mars Hill came out defying expectations - shooting 82.8 percent from the charity stripe and 50 percent from field goal range.

The Highland Cavaliers (0-5, 0-3 SAC) struggled mightily at the line tonight, even though the squad had been shooting over 60 percent in freebie points in their previous four games of the season. The Cavs only made four of 13 free-throw shots in the first half, and ended the night going nine for 19. 

The Lions were able to take a stab into the Cavs early as Kadyn Dawkins sank a three-pointer to start the action. Once taking a five-point lead, Kaeleb Carter eventually got the Cavs on the board with a three-pointer of his own. Dawkins proved himself to be a key scorer in the first half, as he went and sank all eight of his free throw shots and was able to snag 13 points. Although the Cavs never took the lead in the game, they never trailed too far from Mars Hill as they were down only 10 at the half. 

Into the second half, the Cavs had crawled their way back within reach of the Lions and were only down by seven thanks to a Tyler Lloyd dunk. Momentum slowly faded, however, as Mars Hill scored 14 points in the next three minutes while the Cavs were held to only seven. With 8:09 left to go in the game, the Lions had found themselves at a remarkable 20-point lead with only one of their players, Dawkins, scoring in double-digits in the second half. Although UVA Wise had a better free-throw performance in the second half, they couldn't seem to figure it out from the arc and lost by a 22-point margin.

Freshman Makai Vassell was able to put in a team-high 17 points in the bucket tonight, while fellow classmate Joel Pettiford led the team with nine rebounds. 

Next, the Cavs will go into their second game of a three-game home stretch and face the Tusculum Pioneers with a 4:00 p.m. tipoff on Saturday, Nov. 27.

For all Cavalier news, statistics, and more, visit www.uvawisecavs.com.