Despite playing to a 29-29 tie at the intermission, the Hawks were outscored 44-23 in the second half. Keying the second half run for the Panthers was 15 of a career-high 25 points by Jerrell Wyatt. In his debut with Ferrum, Wyatt made 10-of-15 shots from the floor, pulled down three rebounds and dished out three assists.
“We did not do a good job of defending his (Wyatt) penetration,” Huntingdon head coach Tony Duckworth said. “When we did close in on him, he did a great job of dumping the ball off for an easy basket.”
Huntingdon fell behind early, when a lay-up by Wayne Ford gave the Panthers a 14-7 lead with 13:23 left in the first half.
However, an 8-2 spurt capped by a jumper by Cole Hairston, pulled the Hawks to within one at 16-15 at the 10:05 mark of the opening period.
Wade pushed Ferrum ahead by six, 27-21, with 3:00 remaining before the intermission on his 10th point of the half, but the Hawks again rallied, closing the period on a second 8-2 run to provide the halftime tie.
The Panthers blew the game open with a 14-3 run during the first four minutes of the second half, providing a deficit of 43-32.
The Hawks again clawed their way back into the contest after Travis Bridges knocked down a jumper to pull the team to within four points at 48-44, with 11:46 remaining in the game.
Ferrum answered with an 11-0 run during the next 4:35 to seal the victory, pushing the score to 59-44. The Panther kept the lead in double figures for the remainder of the game, as Huntingdon was able to trim the lead to as little as 11 points on two occasions.
Leading the Hawks was Brad Himel, who notched 15 points in his Huntingdon debut. Hairston and David Sampleton also finished in double figures with 13 points each. Hairston finished with a team-high seven rebounds.
As a team, the Hawks shot 38.5 percent from the floor, converting 20-of-52 shots. However, in the decisive second half, Huntingdon converted only 8-of-26 shots, a field goal percentage of .308. Ferrum knocked down 49.1 percent of its shots for the game, including a blazing 59.3 percent in the second half.
The Hawks will look to rebound on Saturday, when they take on Greensboro College in the finale of the Great South/USA South Tip-Off Classic IV. Tip-off for the contest is set for 2 p.m.