The Bears received 23 opportunities at the charity line and made 20 of them.

Catawba’s failure to hit free throws, especially down the stretch, helped the Bears.

The Indians made only seven of 15 from the foul line, and they could have added nine more points to their total if they had been perfect at the foul line in the final 6:51 of the contest.

It was a close battle all the way.

With 8:16 remaining, Catawba’s Jacob Parks and Lenoir-Rhyne’s Josh Orr came to blows in a scrap for a rebound, and both were ejected from the game.

Catawba’s Luke Halton was tagged with a technical foul for coming off the bench.

John Tolbert make one of two free throws to pull the Bears even at 52-all.

The Bears got the basketball out of bounds following the technical foul, and Kassim Richardson put the Bears ahead to stay at 54-52.

The Indians trailed by 58-54 but got within two at 60-58 on a goal by Brian Carter.

Lenoir-Rhyne stole the basketball with 2:05 left, and Richardson scored to give the Bears a 62-58 lead.

Tony Davenport was fouled with 40 seconds left, and he missed two free throws. Lenoir-Rhyne got the rebound but Davenport stole the basketball and was deliberately fouled by Bryan Lentz with 19 seconds left.

He made one free throw, 62-59. Catawba got a chance to tie the score but Nedzad Gusic’s 3-point try missed, and Lentz got the rebound for the Bears. He was fouled and made two free throws for the final five-point margin.

The loss was the fourth straight for the Indians, leaving them with an 8-9 overall record and a 2-5 mark in the conference. The defeat virtually eliminated the Indians from the SAC regular-season title race. No team has won a SACtitle with five losses.

The victory gave the Bears an 11-5 record for the season and improved their SACmark to 5-2.

Richardson paced the Bears with 19 points. Dell Douglas followed with 10.

“Ican’t fault our effort,” said coach Jim Baker of the Indians. “We played hard and had chances to win. We did not make our free throws. We are a good free throw shooting team, but we couldn’t make them. I think our kids are pressing at the free throw line. We have missed so many lately.”

The Indians outscored the Bears by 25-19 from the field, but Lenoir-Rhyne had a 6-2 edge in 3-pointers and a 20-7 margin at the foul line.

Catawba fell behind early but surged to a 14-14 tie with 10:32 left in the half. The Bears surged ahead by 31-25 with 5:10 showing in the half.

But then the Indians went on the warpath, scoring 13 straight points to lead by 38-31. Carter and Krusevljanin sparked the rally.

The Bears broke the cold spell by scoring the final five points of the half to cut the margin to 38-36 at intermission.

The Bears used three 3-pointers to take a 47-44 lead. The Indians charged back to pull ahead by 52-51.

Following the flare of tempers, Tolbert tied the score at 52-all, and Richardson put the Bears ahead to stay.

The victory gave the Bears an 89-75 edge in the long rivalry with the Indians.

Catawba goes on the road for two games this week, invading Carson-Newman on Wednesday and Wingate Saturday.

LENOIR-RHYNE (64) — Willis 15, Douglas 10, Jo. Orr 2, Tolbert 8, Lentz 7, Ja. Orr, Breland 3, Richardson 19.

CATAWBA (59) — Bryant 6, Hamilton 9, Parks, Davenport 10, Robertson 5, Krusevljanin 10, Petty 7, Carter 8, Whitehead, Gusic 4, Parker, Bryan.

Lenoir-Rhyne 36 28 — 64