FLORENCE, SC – Senior forward Bryce Beamer connected on a turn-around jumper from eight feet out with 2.1 seconds remaining to lift Francis Marion University to a 99-98 victory over King University (Tenn.), Saturday afternoon (Jan. 7) in Conference Carolinas men's basketball action.
 
FMU wins its fourth game in a row to improve to 9-4 overall and remain in a second-place tie in the conference standings at 6-1.  The Patriots' next game will be at home against Erskine College on Saturday at 4 p.m.
 
Sophomore 6-8 center Jonah Pierce led the Patriots with a career-high 30 points on 12-of-18 shooting, while also hauling down six rebounds and dishing out three assists.  Senior guard Alex Cox followed with 28 points on 11-of-17 shooting, including four three-pointers.
 
Beamer tallied 17 points and six rebounds, while senior guard Tionne Rollins registered 17 points and a career-high-equaling nine assists. 
 
Senior guard Michael Mays paced King (4-9, 3-4) with 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting, while dishing out six assists.
 
FMU and King entered the game as the top two scoring offenses in the conference, and the game did not disappoint.
 
A three-point play by the 5-10 Mays, a floating jumper over Pierce, gave the Tornado a 98-97 lead with 17 seconds remaining.  Following a timeout, Beamer picked up his dribble just outside the paint on the right side and drained a turn-around jumper with 2.1 ticks left.
 
King advanced the ball to halftime court and called timeout with 1.8 seconds remaining.  Mays grabbed the inbounds pass, but his turn-and-fire three-pointer at the horn was off the mark.
 
King threatened the blow FMU out of its own building in the first half as the Tornado hit their first seven three-point attempts and led by as many as 15 points (31-16) with 11:55 left before halftime.  The margin was still 14 points, 37-23, with 9:50 on the clock, but Francis Marion responded with a 10-2 spurt to draw within 39-33.
 
FMU trailed 44-35, but used an 8-0 run to pull within 44-43.  King answered with its own 8-0 run only to have Francis Marion close the first stanza with a 9-2 spurt to trail only 56-54 at intermission.  The Patriots shot a sizzling 61.1 percent over the opening 20 minutes, while King connected on 58.8 percent of its shots.
 
Six points was the largest margin in the second half as the stanza featured 10 ties and 11 lead changes.  A driving lay-up by Cox capped a 7-0 run that gave FMU an 89-83 advantage with 6:57 left.  King rallied to knot the score at 91-91 on a three-pointer by guard Amarius Beasley with 5:13 left.  The squads were tied at 93-93 and 95-95, before Rollins converted an off-balance lay-in with 29 seconds left that gave FMU a 97-95 lead.
 
For the game, Francis Marion shot 57.6 percent from the floor, including 7-of-23 from behind the three-point arc, and was 16-of-20 at the foul line.  King connected on 55.9 percent of its shots, including 12-of-25 from long range, and was 10-of-13 at the charity stripe.
 
FMU committed only nine turnovers and held a 17-5 edge in points-off-turnovers.  The Patriots also led 36-9 in fast-break points and had 16 more points in the paint (56-40) than did the Tornado.

 
 
01/07/23 4:00 pm at Florence, SC
FRANCIS MARION 99, KING (TN) 98
KING (TN) (4-9,3-4 Conferen)
Michael Mays 9-14 4-4 25; Kenny Turner 9-11 1-1 19; Jaylen Bernard 5-10 1-2
14; Darron Howard 5-10 0-0 14; Brandon Lamberth 4-12 3-4 11; Henry Okoye 3-3
1-2 8; Myles McCrary 2-6 0-0 4; Amarius Beasley 1-1 0-0 3; Zach Grodzki 0-0
0-0 0; Josh Jackson 0-1 0-0 0; Jordan Akal 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 38-68 10-13 98.
FRANCIS MARION (9-4,6-1 Conferen)
Jonah Pierce 12-18 6-8 30; Alex Cox 11-17 2-4 28; Bryce Beamer 7-12 2-2 17;
Tionne Rollins 6-13 4-4 17; Farid SaintCyr Jr. 2-4 2-2 7; Nick Silva 0-0 0-0
0; Yohan-Steve Yebga 0-0 0-0 0; Darius Jones 0-0 0-0 0; Asante Turner 0-0
0-0 0; Doug Alves 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 38-66 16-20 99.
Halftime: King (TN) 56 Francis Marion 54
3-point goals--King (TN) 12-25 (Darron Howard 4-9; Michael Mays 3-7; Jaylen
Bernard 3-6; Amarius Beasley 1-1; Henry Okoye 1-1; Brandon Lamberth 0-1),
Francis Marion 7-23 (Alex Cox 4-8; Farid SaintCyr Jr. 1-2; Bryce Beamer 1-6;
Tionne Rollins 1-5; Doug Alves 0-1; Jonah Pierce 0-1). Fouled out--King
(TN)-None, Francis Marion-Jonah Pierce. Rebounds--King (TN) 32 (Kenny Turner
7), Francis Marion 26 (Jonah Pierce 6; Bryce Beamer 6). Assists--King (TN)
24 (Michael Mays 6), Francis Marion 25 (Tionne Rollins 9). Total fouls--King
(TN) 14, Francis Marion 13. Technical fouls--None. A-221