HARTSVILLE, S.C. – In the second outing of a two-game road trip this weekend, UVA Wise (8-10, 4-6 SAC) dropped a high-scoring contest against Coker (10-7, 6-3 SAC) Saturday evening.
Despite scoring 103 points, UVA Wise was just short of Coker's emphatic 109 points in the game. It's the first time the Cavs have lost a game while scoring 100 or more points since losing 112-100 to No. 5 West Liberty on Feb. 7, 2019. Coincidentally, Coker's first-year head coach Michael Lamberti was an assistant coach for that West Liberty team five years ago.
The loss is also the first of its kind for UVA Wise in the NCAA Div. II era when scoring 100 or more points in a road game.
The Cavs were headlined by freshman guard Carmelo Pacheco who had a career high 28 points. Pacheco made a career best 11 field goals on 19 attempts while also going 4-for-8 from downtown.
The Harrisonburg, Va. native's 28 points are the second-most in a game by a Cavalier this season.
Pacheco was joined by four other teammates in double figure scoring. The shorthanded Cavs only had seven players take the floor as all five starters reached double digits.
Redshirt sophomore Joe'l Pettiford had one of his best games of the season with 19 points and eight rebounds. Pettiford did not miss a single shot, going 7-for-7 in the loss. In the last 11 games, Pettiford, who leads the Cavs in field goal percentage at 66 percent on the season, has gone an astonishing 44-for-61 (72.1 percent) in the last 11 games for UVA Wise. Saturday marked Pettiford's fifth time going perfect from the floor in a game this season.
Pettiford and Pacheco were joined by sophomore guards Zion Fruster and Calen Lightford who had 17 and 13 points respectively.
Lightford went 4-of-7 from beyond the arc in the game, notching his sixth career game with four or made three pointers in the contest. The night is also Lightford's third consecutive game in double figures as he's put up 13, 15 and 13 points in the last three outings.
The fifth Cavalier to reach double figures was junior forward Lav Cvetkovic who dropped 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting. The performance is Cvetkovic's fourth straight night with 15 or more points and sixth such night within the last eight games.
Despite five scorers in double figures for the fourth time this season, the loss was UVA Wise's first when accomplishing the scoring feat.
The Cavs were met with four double digit scoring efforts on the other end, led by Coker senior guard Andre Leavell with 33 points. The Arkansas Tech transfer controlled the game from start to finish and nearly finished with what would've been his first career triple-double as he chipped in eight rebounds and nine assists. Leavell hit a clutch, pull-up jumper with 0:22 left to put his team up 107-101 and seal the game.
The Cobras were also delighted by a season-high scoring performance from senior guard Tate Mulkey. He had tied his previous season high with 25 points thanks in large part to a 5-for-9 showing from downtown.
With the loss, UVA Wise has now dropped six of its last eight games. The Cavs will benefit from some time off, as they prepare to host Catawba at the David J. Prior Center next week on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 4 p.m.
