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Jackson, MS-The Belhaven men's basketball team played tough against NCAA Division I Mississippi State University in an exhibition game Wednesday night losing 101-76 at the Fairgrounds Coliseum. Rob Wallace was impressive for the Blazers scoring 31 points against the Bulldogs to lead all scorers in the game.

Wallace's 31 points came on the strength of an 11 of 24 shooting night from the field including 6 of 12 from behind the three point arc. Wallace entered Wednesday's contest averaging 20.3 points per game. Brittion Smith added 11 points for the Blazers and Terrence Stringfellow rounded out Belhaven's double digit scorers with 10 points going 3 for 4 from the field and 4 for 4 at the free throw line. Daryl Arnold and Nathaniel Roch'e contributed seven points each and Arnold led the Blazers on the boards with six rebounds. Bobby Grier played well at the point guard position as he dished out a team high five assists.

As a team, Belhaven knocked down 41.5 percent of their field goals (27-65), dialed in on 36.8 percent of their triples (7-19), and hit 68.2 percent of their free throw opportunities (15-22). The Blazers were outrebounded 43-35 and had 19 turnovers which Mississippi State turned into 21 points. Belhaven (6-3) forced the Bulldogs into 16 turnovers and converted them into 18 points of their own.

Mississippi State (7-2) was led by Ravern Johnson with 29 points on 10 of 17 shooting and Dee Bost dropped in 26 hitting 10 of his 20 shots from the field for the Bulldogs. Johnson and Bost combined to knock down 11 triples. Kodi Augustus tossed in 11 points and had seven rebounds. Renardo Sidney in his much anticipated debut notched 10 points while grabbing six rebounds. Wendell Lewis paced the Bulldogs in rebounds with 11 points and had eight points off the bench. Bost not only shot the ball well, but also found the open man on the floor throughout the game with a game high nine assists.

The Bulldogs hit 54.2 percent of their field goals (39-72), 45.5 percent of their three point shots (15-33), and 61.5 percent of their attempts from the charity stripe (8-13). Mississippi State had a team total of 23 assists and nine steals.

The game started out slow on the offensive end of the floor as neither side could find the bottom of the net through the first 2:30 of the game. Belhaven finally got the scoring going on a jumper by Stringfellow to put the Blazers on top 2-0. Stringfellow played well off the bench and saw a lot of action early in the game due to Roch'e picking up two quick fouls. The Blazers then proceeded to reel off the next four points on a Wallace layup off the fast break and two free throws by Stringfellow which made it a 6-0 game.

Lewis finally got the Bulldogs on the board and brought the crowd to its feet with a dunk at the 16:23 mark of the first half. Belhaven then bumped the advantage back to six on a Wallace layup making it 8-2 just a few seconds later. Mississippi State then put together a mini 5-1 run and trailed Belhaven 9-7 with just over 15 minutes to play in the opening period. The Blazers countered with a 16-6 scoring run which was capped by a pair of Brittion Smith free throws with 11:33 to go in the first period giving Belhaven a 25-13 edge.

Mississippi State then started to heat up and chipped away at the deficit and with 6:32 to go until halftime trailed 32-30 following a Bost triple. Belhaven bumped the lead back to six points at 36-30 on a free throw by Roch'e and a three pointer from Wallace. Unfortunately, the final 5:29 of the half belonged to the Bulldogs as they turned a six point deficit into a 10 point lead at halftime thanks to an 18-2 run which made it a 48-38 game.

The second half was all Mississippi State and the Blazers could get no closer than nine points the rest of the way. The Bulldogs took a 17 point lead at 62-45 on a three point shot from Johnson with 15:54 left in the contest. Belhaven pulled back to with nine points at 62-53 on free throw out of the hand of Chris Cofield with 14:04 to play. Then with 11:37 left, Wallace bagged another triple to bring the Blazers to within nine again at 67-58. From there, the Bulldogs pushed the lead to 81-63 just over four minutes later and held at least a 15 edge for the rest of the game in route to the 101-76 victory.

“I thought we played really well and were very aggressive in the first half,” said Belhaven Head Coach Tom Kelsey. “I was very pleased with our effort and the thing I am most proud of is that we had no fear. We had great composure and that enabled us to get on top early in the game.”

“Wallace stepped up big for us and made some big shots throughout the course of the game,” added Kelsey. “He is capable of putting up big points all the time and big time players make big time plays which he did when we needed it. The turning point in the game was the 18-2 run by Mississippi State that got them into a routine and took away some of our confidence. During that stretch they put some bigger guards out on Wallace and took him out of the offense which hurt us.”

“Defensively, I thought Terrence (Stringfellow) and Nate (Roch'e) did a good job on Renardo Sidney,” said Kelsey. We had good help on him down low from the rest of the team as well in that when he touched the ball in the paint we were able to double down on him which was our plan going in. We had a tough time shutting down Johnson and Bost from the outside as both those guys had a tremendous game shooting the basketball. I think this will be a confidence booster despite the loss because it showed our guys what they are capable of and that they can compete with anybody if they play hard day in and day out.”

Belhaven will take the court again on Friday night when they host Shorter University in Rugg Arena. The Hawks are ranked 13th in the latest NAIA Top 25 Poll. The tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM.