Box Score Once again, these Panthers proved they're resilient.

After losing to Washington Adventist by a point in overtime back on Nov. 20, Virginia Union had won seven games by two points or less.

Number eight came on Saturday, behind Tavon Mealy's last second heroics and at the expense of the Chowan Hawks.

Mealy's drive and baby hook from the right block with 6.3 seconds left gave the Panthers a 70-69 win over the Hawks in front of 1,205 at Barco-Stevens Hall. It was Union's fourth win in a row and makes them 9-1 in CIAA play and 4-1 in Northern Division play.

Virginia State's win over Lincoln on Saturday keeps the Trojans first in the division at 5-0. They're also 9-1 in CIAA play with less than a month to go until the CIAA Tournament.

Resilient was the word used by Union coach Jay Butler to describe his team.

"They're going to continue to fight, to work hard and we're going to scrap until the end," he said.

Chowan led by as many as 10 points midway through the second half after the Panthers held a 38-34 lead at halftime.

Andrew Lopez hit three of his seven 3-pointers over a four-minute stretch midway through the second half. His third during that stretch put the Hawks up 56-46, but Devin Moore and Mealy (Armstrong) scored back-to-back baskets off offensive rebounds to pull the Panthers within six with just over 10 minutes left.

The Hawks held onto their lead until freshman Everett Patterson (John Marshall) tied the game at 66-66 with a 3 from the corner. John Mitchell's put back got Union up 68-66 before Lopez hit his seventh 3 with 20.4 left to put Chowan up 69-68.

Union set up their offense and got the ball to Mealy at the top of the key, who drove and scored with 6.3 left. Chowan got the ball in the paint with the ensuing possession, but an interior pass was deflected and the buzzer sounded.

"We ran the four-high, where we try to get the ball to Tavon (Mealy) and kind of clear it out for him, and we told him, 'just get to the basket. Get to the basket and try to finish,'" Butler said.

Mealy said they practice situational plays often and they usually end with him or Ray Anderson taking the shot.

"This time it was just my time to step up," Mealy said, adding it felt good leaving his hands and that it, "felt great to end the game."

Mealy finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Anderson scored 16 to go with eight rebounds. Moore shot 9 of 11 from the field and finished with a team-high 18 points off the bench.

Mealy and Moore, along with the rest of the Panther bigs dominated the Hawks on the interior. They scored 52 points in the paint and scored 27 second-chance points off of 19 offensive rebounds.

"We're getting that balance going," Butler said, noting that interior offense been an emphasis for the Panthers over their past few games. He wasn't thrilled with his team's defense, especially late, but said they made stops when they had to.

"We've just got to continue to play great defense and we've got to get off to a good start," he said. "Right now, these close games, they're tough on my heart, but we keep pulling them out."

Mealy echoed his coach's' sentiments on all the close games.

"We've just got to put 40 minutes together, so we can stop winning by one," he said with a smile. When asked if it got old playing in tight games, his response was simply no.

"When you win, it doesn't get old."