WISE – Down by three points to Lees-McRae (1-1) with just 18 seconds left, UVA Wise (1-1) was staring its first loss of the season in the face. 

After a foul, senior forward Rron Ukaj nailed the first of two free throws to pull the Cavs within two, 97-95. A miss ensued that was rebounded by the Bobcats' senior forward Sidney Dollar. As Dollar turned to pass it to the outlet man, sophomore guard Zion Fruster stole the pass and dished the ball to junior guard Zy'Ever Wingfield to tie the game with 11.2 seconds remaining. 

Lees-McRae, in an attempt to catch UVA Wise off guard, quickly inbounded the ball and pushed it up the sideline. Fruster, again, plucked the ball from senior guard Timon Jones. 

With the weight of the clock weighing heavy on their shoulders, the Cavs got the ball up the floor for a slashing Wingfield one more time. He would make the layup to complete his career-high 21 points. The final four points of his night tied and took the lead for the Cavs with just 5.8 seconds left. 

After leading 57-56 at the 17:25 mark, UVA Wise trailed almost the entire remainder of the second half. The Cavs snatched the lead twice in the final two minutes, before graduate guard and Salem University transfer Rodney Smith canned a three-pointer with 0.4 seconds left to win the game for Lees-Mcrae. 

The horn sounded after Smith's bucket, and thus all in attendance at the David J. Prior Convocation Center thought they had just witnessed an epic game and heartbreaking loss for the Cavs.

Instead, the officials gathered and decided to add four tenths of a second to the clock, and give the Cavs one last breath of hope. 

With the Bobcats at 10 team fouls in the half and having to go the full length of the floor in under one second, head coach Blake Mellinger drew up a genius play in the hopes to give the Cavs a legitimate shot at tying or winning the game. 

Sophomore guard Patrick Shelley would inbound for the Cavs. He was guarded by sophomore forward Matthew Knafelz, who had not seen any playing time in the entire event prior to its final play, but Knafelz stands at 6-feet 7-inches, the tallest on the roster for the Bobcats. 

As Shelley ran the baseline to avoid Knafelz, freshman guard Carmelo Pacheco set a screen to allow his teammate to get open. Knafelz barreled through the UVA Wise freshman in what looked like a textbook charge. 

None of the three officials thought there was enough evidence to make the call, which would've sent Pacheco to the free throw line for two attempts to tie or win the game. 

Instead, Shelley's pass was deflected and the game was over. Lees-McRae 100, UVA Wise, 99. Final. 

For a Bobcats that significantly struggled on offense in its first game, a 101-77 loss to Carson-Newman, they surprised everybody with a lights-out shooting performance for all 40 minutes against the Cavs. Lees-McRae ended the night shooting 57 percent (39-for-69) in total, including 64 percent (21-for-33) in the second half. 

The Cavs outshot the Bobcats both from the floor and behind the arc. UVA Wise shooters went 35-for-57 (61 percent) from the floor and, for the second night in a row, they hit 50 percent of their outside shots, going 9-for-18. 

With a number of guys seemingly scoring at will in the second half, the Bobcats finished with five scorers in double digits. Complementing Smith's game-high 22 points, was senior guard Timon Jones who finished with 19 points on 7-for-14 field goal shooting. 

For UVA Wise, Wingfield led the way with 21 points and Fruster followed up his 18-point performance from the night prior with 17 on Sunday. Shelley added 19 points which included going 9-for-13 at the free throw line, making his last four consecutive foul shots in crunch time. 

Ukaj had maybe the most complete stat line of the game, finishing with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting, grabbing seven rebounds, and forcing four steals on defense. 

Of the four double-digit scorers for UVA Wise, the only player to start the game was Shelley, as the Cavalier bench contributed 57 points. Proving the added depth for Mellinger's team this season, the non-starters scored a total of 108 of UVA Wise's 189 points on the weekend. 

It's the first time in at least five seasons the Cavs scored 50+ bench points in a game, shockingly doing it twice in two days. 

With the loss, UVA Wise falls to 1-1 on the season and Lees-McRae improves to the same record. Carson-Newman went undefeated on the weekend, as the South Atlantic Conference won three of the four games against its Conference Carolinas opponents. 

Next on the docket for the Cavs, they will face Johnson & Wales (N.C.) on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. from the Prior Center.