FORT VALLEY, Ga. - The Paine College men's basketball team fell to Fort Valley State, 74-56 in a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) eastern division match-up on Monday evening in Fort Valley, Georgia.

The Lions drop to (1-13, 0-8 SIAC) on the season while the Wildcats improve to (7-9, 5-2 SIAC).

After holding a 6-5 lead seven minutes into the game, FVSU would go on a 30-13 run the rest of the way to lead PC at the half 35-19. The second half would see Paine make a run of their own cutting Fort Valley's lead to just eight points (53-45) with 8:13 remaining in the ball game. That would be as close as the Lions would get as the Wildcats would lead by as many as 21 on there way to the 18 point victory.

PC was led by freshman guard, Jared Tate, who scored 18 points on 5-of-14 shooting. Antoine Williams chipped in with eight points and five rebounds in just 19 minutes of play. Paine forced a game-high 24 FVSU turnovers while blocking four of their shots.

The Lions shot 33.9(19-of-56) percent from the field for the game while only connecting on 12-of-25 free-throws. Fort Valley dominated the boards, out-rebounding PC 55-29 including 19 offensive rebounds.

The Wildcats were led by Dareial Franklin who had a game-high 21 points and James Barnes finished with a double-double, 10 points and 12 rebounds on the night.

Paine returns to action next Monday, January 23rd at 7 p.m. against Morehouse College in the HEAL Complex.