Covenant College junior forward Will Crumly is a D3hoops.com fourth-team preseason basketball All-American, the website announced Tuesday. The 6-foot-9 Crumly was the USA South player of the year and an NABC Division III third-team All-American last season, when he averaged 22 points and 8.5 rebounds a game and shot 59.9 percent from the field. He has averaged 15.5 points for his Scots career. Covenant opens its season Friday night at 9 EST against Birmingham-Southern in the Lon Varnell Classic at Sewanee. Crumly's brother Jonny plays for Sewanee; he's a 6-7 senior.
* The Bryan College basketball teams opened Appalachian Athletic Conference play Wednesday with a home sweep of Union College. After the Lady Lions, ranked No. 20 in NAIA Division II, won 87-81, the Lions knocked off the 17th-ranked Union men, 76-66. Isaiah McClain scored 17 points and Brandon Thomas had 16 points and 15 rebounds in the upset, while Michael Johnson had 15 points with three 3-point baskets and Noah Mulaski contributed 14 points and seven steals. Ronnie Carson led Union with 22 points and three thefts. Neither team shot free throws well - Bryan (2-1 overall) hit 14 of 27, the Bulldogs 8 of 16 - but the Lions shot 43.8% from the field compared to 39.1% for the visitors. For the Lady Lions (4-0), Destiny Kassner had 22 points and seven rebounds and Kaitlynn Hennessee had 19 points, six rebounds and four assists. Karli Combs and Shayla Ludy scored 16 and 12 points with four 3s each, and Deandra Luna passed for 10 assists. Brooke Hammonds had 20 points, five steals and five assists for Union, which got 18 and 17 points and nine rebounds apiece from LeAsia Linton and Logan Calvert. Calvert also had five assists.
Volleyball
* The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga volleyball team dropped to 5-20 overall and 0-12 in the Southern Conference with a 3-0 home loss to Mercer (12-14, 5-8) on Wednesday. The set scores were 25-20, 26-24, 25-20. Gylian Finch had 11 kills and Brianna Anderson added seven for UTC, while Maddie Halsey had 20 assists and junior Megan Kaufman had a match-high 17 digs that put her within seven of 1,300 for her college career. The Mocs play Friday at Furman and Saturday at UNC Greensboro.
* Covenant pulled out a 3-2 win (18-25, 27-25, 25-23, 14-25, 17-15) over Piedmont but then lost 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-19) to host Huntingdon in Montgomery, Alabama, as the USA South volleyball tournament got underway Tuesday. The Lady Scots ended their season 11-18. Emily Moore tied a Covenant record with 39 digs against Piedmont (10-19), when Allie Jakes downed 14 kills and Riley Howe and Jess Chesrown had 13 apiece, Howe with 17 digs, and Leah Buys had 40 assists and 18 digs. Sara Delk also had 18 digs. Against Huntingdon (23-14), Chesrown led with six kills, Moore had 23 digs and Buys had 13 assists.
Soccer
* The Lee University men's soccer team played to a 1-1 draw through two overtime periods in its Gulf South Conference makeup match Wednesday night at Montevallo. Lee's Flames (7-4-3, 3-3-2) took a brief lead on Will Carter's 35th-minute goal from a Matt Chartier assist, but the host Falcons (5-6-2, 3-2-1) tied the score less than four minutes later. The shots count was even at 13-13, with a 4-3 edge for Montevallo in shots on goal. The Flames will play in a GSC tournament quarterfinal next Tuesday; they will find out the opponent and site this weekend.
* The Tennessee Wesleyan men set a new high in the NAIA Top 25 poll Wednesday for the fourth time this season - to No. 16 from 17th. The regular-season-champion Bulldogs (15-2-2) are hosting No. 4 seed Union College in an AAC semifinal at 2 p.m. Friday. No. 2 seed Bryan will host third seed Reinhardt at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Baseball
* Tennessee Wesleyan went 56-10 and won the 2019 NAIA baseball championship and will begin the 2020 season in the No. 1 spot, according to the preseason coaches' poll released Wednesday. TWU got 17 of the 18 first-place votes. Bryan is 18th after being 23rd in last year's final poll.
Fishing
* Bryan anglers fifth: Bryan College doubled its contingent for the FLW collegiate national bass tournament in February with two top-20 finishes last Friday in the regional on Lake Hartwell. Bryan's Justin Botts and Griffin Heffington finished fifth, in fact, with 12 pounds, 7 ounces of spotted bass, and Andrew Fisher and Bennett Kudder also qualified for the national event with a 20th-place total of 10-12. The Lions duos of Cole Sands with Conner DiMauro and Jake Lee with Dalton Price qualified earlier in the year.