Box Score
Jackson, TN-In what in ended up being a last minute schedule change at the Lambuth University Classic, the Belhaven men's basketball team dropped their first game of the season 62-60 to Freed-Hardeman University. The Blazers are now 5-1 on the season while the Lions improved to 3-3 with the win.

 

Belhaven was originally slated to play Lambuth University in Friday's second game. However, the schedule was reworked with Lambuth facing Tougaloo at 7 PM and Belhaven squaring off with the Lions at 9 PM. The original plan was for the Blazers to take on Freed-Hardeman Saturday afternoon.

 

Belhaven got off to a strong start by jumping out to a 13-2 lead to begin the game. The run was capped off by a Roderick Wilson field goal with 17:23 to go in the opening half. A three point bucket by Freed-Hardeman's Shun Trevillan sliced the Blazer lead to seven at 16-9 about seven minutes into the first half. Belhaven countered with a 7-0 run culminated by a Korey Whiting basket to give the Blazers their largest lead of the night 23-9. The Lions seized the momentum going into halftime by outscoring the Blazers 21-4 over the final ten plus minutes of the first half. A field goal by Zack Frey gave Freed-Hardeman their first lead of the game 26-25 with just over a minute to go in the half. The first half finished with the Lions controlling a 28-27 advantage as both teams headed into the locker room.

 

Korey Whiting led the Blazers in first half scoring with eight points and four rebounds. As a team, Belhaven shot 40 percent from the field including just 3 of 11 from behind the three point line. Shun Trevillian had 13 points for the Lions in the first half. Wesley Mayes pulled down a team high of six rebounds for Freed-Hardeman. The Lions hit 46 percent of their field goals in the first period.

 

The second half began with a Lion field goal by Zack Frey to give Freed-Hardeman a three point lead with 18:19 remaining in the game. After briefly holding the lead and three different ties, the Blazers seemed to regain control of the game beginning with a Korey Whiting free throw putting the Blazers up one 37-36 with 14:04 to go. That began an 18-7 run that saw the Blazers push their lead back to 11 points with just 4:48 to play in the contest. The second the half ended much like the first, with the Lions putting together a 19-6 run in the final four and a half minutes to pull out the two point win. The game winning points came on a pair of free throws by Shun Trevillian with four seconds to go. Iman Walcott committed a foul going for the offensive rebound on a missed three pointer to put Trevillian at the line. The Blazers were unable to attempt another shot before time expired.

 

Phillip Holmes led the Blazer offense with 16 points while Korey Whiting and Dax Miller each added 10 points each. Whiting also had a team high nine rebounds and six steals against the Lions. Belhaven shot 41.5 percent form the field but the difference in the game came at the free throw line. The Blazers hit just 11 of 22 second half free throw opportunities and were 11 of 24 for the game which equates to 46 percent from the line. Freed-Hardeman had four players in double figures led by Kristoffer Smith with 16 points. Trevillian had 15 points followed by Zack Frey and Jesse Moulton with 12 and 10 points respectively. The Lions knocked down 41 percent of their shots, but more importantly drilled 81 percent of their free throws.