SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Converse University men's basketball team fell 94-82 to King on Tuesday evening inside the Weisiger Center.
 
With the loss the Valkyries drop to 6-13 overall and 4-10 in Conference Carolinas action. Meanwhile, King improves to 9-13 overall and 7-7 in Conference Carolinas play. Converse has now lost six straight games, with their last win coming against Shorter on January 9^th.
 
Jordyn Surratt stuffed the stat sheet on Tuesday evening, the senior led the team with 25 points, six rebounds and five assists. Surratt also made a career high six three-pointers in the loss to the Tornado. Tre Lockear scored a career high 23 points and finished with a career high in made field goals and made three-point field goals.
 
The Valkyries as a team tied the school record for three pointers in a game with 17 on the evening. Lockear and Surratt became the first two Valkyrie teammates to each record at least six three-pointers in a single game. Prior to tonight the Valkyries were 2-0 when recording 17 made threes and they were 6-1 when making at least 15 three-pointers.
 
King won the opening tip-off and scored the first three-pointer of the game on their opening possession. Surratt found Pickering for a layup on the Valkyries first offensive possession down the court. Following a missed layup by the Tornado, Surratt found Camden Edmonds open for a three-pointer and the Valkyries had their first lead of the contest.
 
Trailing 7-5 in the early moments of the first half, Surratt hit back-to-back three-pointers to give the Valkyries offense a boost. The momentum shift helped the Valkyries build an 11-7 advantage and they took an 11-9 lead into the first media timeout of first half.
 
Both teams went silent offensively for nearly two minutes of game time, before King tied the game at 11. Another two minutes went by before King made a fastbreak dunk, taking a 13-11 lead with 13:00 to play in the opening half of action.
 
Converse finally ended their scoring drought with a Locklear three-pointer at the 12:05 mark of the first half. The two teams matched each other shot-for-shot over the next few minutes of game action. Latavian Lawrence then got hot from the field with a personal 5-0 run against the Tornado defense. The slight momentum change helped the Valkyries grab a 21-17 edge midway through the opening half.
 
Going into the under eight media timeout of the first half, Converse clung to a 25-24 edge over the Tornado. King came out of the timeout break swinging as they used a 14-4 run to steal the momentum away from the Valkyries. King eventually built a 15 point lead, before going into the halftime break up 53-40 on the Valkyries.
Surratt got the offense going for the Valkyries in the second half with a three-point basket. A few minutes later and Locklear hit back-to-back three-pointers to pull the Valkyries back within seven points down 56-49.
 
The Valkyries kept the Tornado in single digits in first ten minutes of the second half. Then with 8:54 to play in the half, Locklear drained another three-pointer and the Valkyries were back within striking distance down 76-70.
 
Converse was able to pull within five points of King on two separate occasions in the second half. However, it was not enough as the Valkyries ended up losing to the Tornado 94-82. Converse won the second half by a score of 42-41, shooting 38 percent form the field, 37 percent from three point range and 70 percent from the free throw line.   
 
Stats:
Points: Surratt (25), Locklear (23), Lawrence (10)
Rebounds: Surratt (6), Pickering (6), Lawrence (6)
Assists: Surratt (5), Locklear (5), Taylor (4), Pruever (3)

Next Up:
The men's basketball team will stay at home this week with a match against Francis Marion on Thursday evening. Tip-off is slated for 7:00 p.m.     
 
Follow Converse
https://www.facebook.com/ConverseValkyries
Twitter: @Valkyries_MBB
Instagram: @valkyries_mbb