Laurinburg, NC- The St. Andrews men's basketball team tried valiantly to achieve their first win of the season but came away empty again as the Knights struggled down the stretch before falling 84-70 to Montreat College Thursday evening at Harris Court.

SAU tied the game at 63 with about 6 and a half minutes to go, but could not climb any closer. St. Andrews was led by sophomore forward Marquie Smith's 17 points which included a monster crowd-pleasing dunk and multiple threes. Smith was 5 of 7 from the field for a shooting percentage of 71%.

The Knights had 4 players in double figures for the game including freshman guard Mark Chinn's 15, junior guard Chris Clay's 12 and junior forward Alem Peljto's 12. Peljto's points all came from behind-the-arc as he was 4 of 7 from three in only his second game this season. Clay led with 6 assists as well while Chinn had 3 steals.

SAU and Montreat both had good shooting nights from three-point range with the Knights making 11 while the Cavs were at 54 %. Montreat was able to put the game away in the second half based on making 20 of 23 free throws down the stretch and shooting better than 50% overall in the second half led by leading conference scorer, LaBris Adam's double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds.

SAU falls to 0-14 on the season and 0-6 in AAC play while Montreat (NC) improves to 4-10 and 1-4.

St. Andrews will now head back to Tennessee this weekend when they play in Dayton against AAC member Bryan College on Saturday at 4 pm.