CEDARVILLE, Ohio (Feb. 11) - The Tigers battled back from a 19-point deficit, but were defeated 80-77 by Cedarville in Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) play Thursday evening.

The loss drops the Salem International University men's basketball team to 4-18 overall, 1-8 in the G-MAC. Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets improve to 2-6 in league play, a game ahead of Salem International in the G-MAC standings for the final tournament bid, 9-13 overall.

Senior Tyler Bell (Kalamazoo, Mich./Kalamazoo Central) led the Tigers with a season-high 22 points and added five rebounds and three assists to his final line. Junior Lamonte Fields (Dinwiddie, Va./Dinwiddie) tallied 15 points and a team-best seven boards, sophomore Saquan Epps (Upper Marlboro, Md./Frederick Douglass) added 14 points, and junior Victor Blakey (Suitland, Md./Friendly) chipped in 10 in the loss.

Cedarville raced out to leads of 12-4 and 19-10 in the opening 10 minutes of the game. The Tigers trimmed the Yellow Jacket lead to 19-15 following a Blakey three pointer with 10:10 left in the first half, but Cedarville rebuilt its lead to as many as 17 points before taking a 44-28 lead into halftime.

The Yellow Jackets extended their lead to 19, 51-32, three minutes into the second half before the Tigers made their push. Salem International went on a 13-1 run over the next four minutes to trim the Cedarville lead to seven, 52-45, with 13 minutes left in the game.

Cedarville responded with a 10-3 run of its own to rebuild the lead to 14, 62-48, with 10:47 remaining in the game, but the resilient Tigers made another comeback. Salem International out-scored the Yellow Jackets 13-4 over the next five minutes to pull within five, 66-61, with 5:41 to play in the game.

After Cedarville upped its lead back to 10, 76-66, with 2:38 until the final buzzer, the Tigers mounted one final rally. Salem International scored eight unanswered over the next minute, including three pointers by Epps and senior Jerry Sipple, III (Kansas City, Mo./Wyandotte) to pull within a single basket, 76-74, with 1:14 left in the game.

The Yellow Jackets converted a pair of free throws to push the lead back to four, 78-74, with 16 seconds on the clock, but Bell responded with another trey to make it a one point game, 78-77, with 12 seconds remaining.

Salem International allowed the clock to roll down to 2.6 seconds before fouling to send Cedarville to the foul line. The Yellow Jackets sank both free throws to up the lead to three and Blakey's last second half-court shot came up short to end the game.

The Tigers found their shooting stroke from beyond the arc in the second half. Salem International shot 57 percent (8 of 14) from downtown following halftime, after shooting 34 percent (3 of 14) in the first half.

Cedarville nearly gave the game away at the free throw line. The Yellow Jackets were 20 of 35 from the charity stripe (57 percent), but converted all six of its attempts in the final 3:05 of the game to secure the win.

Cedarville was led by Patrick Bain, who finished with 19 points.

Salem International and Cedarville will meet again on Tuesday, Feb. 16 in another pivotal G-MAC matchup at 7:30 p.m.