WISE, VA —  Although the Warren Wilson Owls ran up a ten-point lead at the half, the Cavaliers found a second-half spurt and snuck out with a 94-88 victory on Sunday, Nov. 27.

Listen to the postgame interview with Head Coach Blake Mellinger and Bradley Dean here. 

UVA Wise (6-0, 0-0 SAC) had a slow-moving start, alternating the lead with the Owls (1-5) for the first twelve minutes of the contest. At the 7:55 mark, a three-point shot from Waylon Rutherford put the Owls up 34-31 — and they never lost the lead for the rest of the half. Warren Wilson's Jeremiah Daye went 7-12 from the field and dropped 17 points to hoist the Owls to a 55-45 lead going into the locker room.

After the break, Daye once again found a long shot from the wing and helped the Owls whip up a ten point lead with 18 minutes to go. Back-to-back jumpers from Bradley Dean cut the lead in half, but the Owls found three-point threats when they needed them from Cade and Daye.

After another back-and-forth eight minutes, the Cavs finally regained the lead after a flawless charity stripe showing from Dean to put the score at 69-68 with only ten minutes to go. The Owls soon went ice cold from the field, failing to score for the next three minutes while Patrick Shelley put up four points and gave the Cavs a five-point lead. Daye found ways to retaliate, but a 27-point second half from Dean was the Owl-silencer. The Cavs ran away with the win, 94-88.

Dean came through with a season-high 34-points — resulting in over a third of the Cavs overall points on the day. Ben Bryson and Calen Lightford put up 12 points each and put up a combined eight boards.

The sixth win in a row for UVA Wise ties the best start for the program since November 2002, when the 2002-03 Cavaliers went on a 6-0 stretch before losing to Bryan College on Nov. 23 of that year.

Up next, the Cavs face the Young Harris Mountain Lions on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 1:00 PM.