LEXINGTON, Va. — Sophomore guard Connor Merchant drained a deep three-pointer from the left side of the court as time expired to give Southern Virginia a 79-78 victory over the Washington and Lee men's basketball team on Tuesday in Holekamp Gym.
 
The Generals (2-3) trailed, 69-63, with 6:36 left in the contest, but three straight points by sophomore forward Robert DiSibio (Sandy Hook, Conn./Newtown) and a layup by sophomore forward Jack d'Entremont (Bryn Mawr, Pa./Radnor) trimmed the deficit to one (69-68) with 4:59 on the clock.
 
DiSibio then went to the line for a pair of free throws with 4:27 left in the game and split a pair. Following a technical on the Knights' (4-2) coach while DiSibio was at the line, he took two more free throws and made one to give the Blue and White a 70-69 lead.
 
SVU answered with a three-pointer on its trip down, but DiSibio evened the game once again with a layup with 3:44 on the clock. The Knights went back in front, 74-72, on a layup, but d'Entremont responded with a three-point play to push the Generals in front, 75-74, with 2:28 remaining in the contest.
 
The Knights scored on their next possession to go up one, 76-65, and then senior guard Mark Lamendola (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) made a driving layup to put W&L ahead, 77-76, with 1:09 left in the game.
 
Following misses by both teams, Lamendola stole the ball with 15 seconds on the clock and DiSibio drew a foul to send him to the line for two. He missed both, but d'Entremont corralled the rebound and a timeout was called.
 
The Blue and White inbounded the ball to senior guard Tevin Panchal (Belmont, Calif./Sacred Heart Prep), who was immediately fouled and sent to the line for two. He missed the first, but made the second to extend the lead to two, 78-76, with eight seconds left in the game.
 
SVU raced the ball up the court and called timeout with 3.9 on the clock. Out of the break, the Knights inbounded in front of their bench, and then made a cross-court pass to Marchant for the game-winning three as time expired.
 
The Generals shot 50.9 percent (29-of-57) from the field, but made just 14-of-28 (50.0 percent) from the foul line. SVU shot 45.6 percent (31-of-68) from the floor, 40.7 percent (11-of-27) from long range and 54.5 percent (6-of-11) from the foul line.
 
DiSibio led the Generals with a career-high 32 points on 12-of-17 from the floor. He also had a team-high 10 rebounds. With 16 points, d'Entremont was the team's second-leading scorer, and he added five rebounds and three blocks. First-year guard Thomas Feigin (New York, N.Y./Trevor Day School) added 14 points, and senior forward Gus Wise (Winchester, Va./John Handley) dropped in 14 points.
 
Sophomore forward Malakai Olson paced SVU with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Senior guard Isaiah Marchant totaled 13 points, and Conner Marchant finished with 11 points.
 
The Generals open ODAC play next Wednesday, December 1 against Lynchburg at 7:00 pm.