WINGATE — Catawba’s men’s basketball team will be looking for a way to pull out of a slump after dropping a 91-76 decision to Wingate’s Bulldogs in the South Atlantic Conference here Wednesday night.

It was the fourth loss for the Indians in their past five games and the defeat dropped them to 7-4 in the SAC race. They are 17-6 with three regular season games left.

Wingate’s fast-breaking Bulldogs improved to 9-2 in the conference and 21-4 for the season.

Catawba was unable to maintain a consistent attack. The Indians fell behind 15-8 but rallied behind Kevin Petty and Quentin Bryant to close the gap to 19-18.

But then the Bulldogs raced off to a 38-25 lead and took a 38-27 lead to rest at halftime.

Catawba got its offense rolling and pulled out front by 53-51 behind Alex Luyk, Petty and Terrence Hamilton with 10 minutes left to play.

The Indians went ice-cold and Wingate went on a roll, outscoring the visitors, 25-5, during a six-minute span to take a 76-58 lead and clinch the victory.

Catawba got only a 3-pointer by Bryant and a basket by Hamilton during that span.

The Indians charged back to close the margin to 78-69 but couldn’t overcome the big Wingate lead.

Four Indians reached the double figures. Petty set the pace with 19. Hamilton followed with 16, Brian Carter had 11 and Duke Phipps added 10.

Lorinza Harrington led Wingate with 24, including 14 of 16 from the foul line. He made 10 straight free throws in the last half.

“We played hard, but we let them get away from us in in about a four-minute span the second half,” said Coach Jim Baker of the Indians. “They exploded on us. We had defended well against them up to that point. We made a lot of mistakes and didn’t shoot well in the first half.”

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NOTES:Before the slump, Catawba won 16 of its first 18 games. ... The Indians made 21 turnovers. ... Catawba will try to rebound into the win column when it entertains Newberry Saturday at 4 p. m.

CATAWBA (76) — Petty 19, Hamilton 16, Carter 11, Phipps 10, Bryant 9, Luyk 7, Parks 2, Proctor 2, Whitehead, Parker.

WINGATE (91) — Harrington 24, Dunn 18, Thompson 12, Bah 10, Daise 9, Hankins 9, Miller 7, Vandergrift 2, Brown.

Catawba 27 49 — 76

Wingate 38 53 — 9