Box Score
Jackson, MS-Despite a 22 point night from Nathaniel Roche', the Belhaven men's basketball team couldn't get past the Spring Hill College Badgers in Gulf Coast Athletic Conference action Thursday night, falling to the Badgers 73-66 in Rugg Arena. The Blazers drop to 12-9 overall and are now 4-6 in the GCAC. Spring Hill goes to 10-9 overall with the win and shares a 4-6 conference record with the Blazers.

 

Belhaven's biggest lead of the game was just three points and that came at the 16:08 mark of the first half when Iman Walcott tossed in his first points of the game to make it 4-1 Belhaven. Spring Hill then went on a 16-6 run to take a 17-10 lead with 8:28 to go in the first half. Detrick Johnson pulled the Blazers to within one on a free throw with just over seven minutes to go on the first half clock.

 

Spring Hill countered with a 12-2 to increase the Belhaven deficit to 11 points at 29-18 with about 2:27 on the clock before halftime. The run was capped off by a three pointer by Tyler Schwab on an assist by Chris Dees, Jr. The Blazers then went on a late 7-0 spurt to draw within four points of the Badgers going into the locker room. Roche' connected on a basket with just two seconds on the clock to make the score 29-25 at the break.

 

Early in the second half, Spring Hill extended their advantage to seven points at the 18:08 and 17:35 junctures of the final period. Korey Whiting brought Belhaven to within two points of the lead again on a layup with 13:30 play and at that point the scoreboard read 42-40. The Badgers then reeled of an 8-0 run due in part to a pair of Jeremy Price three point jumpers making the score 50-40 in favor of Spring Hill. The Blazers would close the gap to four points on a bucket by Walcott with 3:43 in the contest. However, the Blazers couldn't completely regain the momentum as the Badgers pulled away for the 73-66 victory.

 

Roche' had a game high 22 points and pulled down nine rebounds in the Blazers loss. Iman Walcott put together another strong effort by recording 17 points and eight boards. Jeffery Hunter had one of his better games of the season with nine points including 3 of 4 shooting from three point land. The Badgers did a good job on Whiting limiting him to just 6 points and four rebounds.

 

As a team, the Blazers hit 41.5 percent of their shots from the field and made 35.7 of their triple tries. Belhaven won the battle of the boards 39-32, but put Spring Hill at the free throw line 20 times in the second half while only attempting five second half free throws themselves. The Badgers made 15 of those free throws opportunities which proved to be the difference in the game. The Blazers made just 12 trips to the stripe the entire game.

 

Spring Hill had five players score in double figures led by Tyler Schwab with 15 points. Jeremy Price had 12 points followed by Marcus Coleman with 11. Chris Dees, Jr. dropped in 10 points along with Nick Brown who also grabbed a game high 10 rebounds to check in with a double double.