THOMASVILLE, GA | The Night Hawks opened the calendar year of 2024 with a tough loss to SSAC foe, Stillman College, 90-86, at home, in the 'Nest', in front of a near capacity crowd.

The game opened in spectacular fashion, as Noah Lattin dunked a lob pass from Deonta Jones to open the ball game.  Stillman would quickly take the lead two possessions later, and own the lead until the 8:28 mark in the 1st half, when Andre Lightbourne would knock down a 3-pointer, to give Thomas a 29-27 advantage.  The two teams traded leads, and Thomas would gain the advantage, for the remainder of most of the half, on a jumper by Tyson Anderson.  With just over two-minutes remaining in the half, Joshua Robertson would get fouled on a 3-point attempt, and subsequently, knock down all three free throws to give the Night Hawks a 45-43 lead.  Two additional free throws by Robertson would close out the scoring for Thomas, with the Night Hawks owning a 47-46 advantage, at halftime.
 

During halftime, Thomas would recognize the Divine Nine, the Historic Black Greek Letter Organizations, that were in attendance at the game.

Thomas would open up the 2nd half on fire, and with 13:21 remaining in the game, Keon Williams would hit a 3-pointer, to give the Night Hawks their largest lead of the day, 68-58.  Stillman would quickly chip away at the Thomas lead, and with 10:10 remaining, tie the game at 70 each.  There would be three ties and three lead changes, over the next seven minutes.  Jarvis Brown's two free throws, with just under 4-minutes remaining, would bring Thomas to a 79-79 tie.  A Stillman layup with 3:10 remaining would give the Tigers their lead, for good.  Stillman would increase their lead to six points, then ultimately seven points, with nine seconds remaining in the game.  Tyson Anderson would hit a 3-pointer with one second remaining, to close out the scoring.

In the hotly contested game that saw eight ties, and 13 lead changes, the Night Hawks would outscore the Tigers off the bench, 33-20.  Stillman dominated Thomas in the paint, 46-24.  Both teams were extremely efficient with their scoring, with the Night Hawks shooting 53.7% from the field, and Stillman shooting 50.0%.  The Night Hawks knocked down 41.4% of their shots from behind the arc, and sank a season high 84.2% (16/19) of their free throws.

The Night Hawks will be back in action at 2 p.mm on Saturday, January 6, to face Blue Mountain University.  For up-to-date information on this game and other TU Athletics, visit http://www.TUNightHawks.com. Stay up-to-date with news, scores, photos, game summaries, play-by play, and feature stories of your TU Men's Basketball team by following them via Twitter at @NightHawksMBKB.