Box Score
Jackson, MS-The Belhaven men's basketball team rebounded from a tough loss to Mississippi College on Monday night and notched a convincing 74-54 win at Dillard University Thursday night in New Orleans in the opening contest of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Schedule. The Blazers never trailed in the game and kept the Bleu Devils off balance on both ends of the floor.

It didn't take long for Belhaven to get on the board as Nathaniel Roche' opened the scoring with a basket just seconds into the action. Rob Wallace followed that up by drilling a three pointer and all of a sudden the Blazers owned a 5-0 advantage out of the gate. Belhaven's 5-0 run quickly turned into a 17-3 run as the Blazers enjoyed a 14 point lead with just over five minutes gone by in the first half.

Dillard then pulled to within four points at 19-15 on a basket by Cornice Wingate with 12:08 on the first half clock, but Belhaven regrouped over the next seven minutes and rebuilt their lead to 13 points at 30-17 with 5:33 remaining until halftime. The Bleu Devils made a late push in the final two minutes of the first half to trim their deficit back to within single digits. A pair of field goals by Autrail Manning and a three point basket by DeCarlos Riley gave Dillard a little momentum heading into the locker room down 34-26 at the break.

Belhaven had another strong start to the second half and quickly pushed the lead back to double digits just nine seconds into the final period on a basket by Wallace. Dillard got to within nine points at 40-31 with just under 17 minutes to play, but that's all the closer the Bleu Devils would get the rest of the night. The Blazers then kicked it in to high gear over the next nine minutes and established a comfortable 61-38 lead and went on to post the 74-54 win.

Belhaven was led by Nathanile Roche' who had a game high 18 points on eight of twelve shooting from the field. Wallace had a good night as well by tallying 12 points while Larell Bailey rounded out the double digit scorers with 11 points. Woodie Howard paced the team in rebounding with eight boards and Bobby Grier ended the evening with a team high four assists.

The Blazers had a huge advantage on the boards outrebounding Dillard 40-26 while also forcing 27 Bleu Devil turnovers. On the offensive side of the ball, Belhaven connected on 48.1 percent of their field goals, posted a 37.5 shooting percentage from behind the arc, and had one of their better nights of the year at the free throw line by making 80.8 percent of their shots at the stripe.

The Bleu Devils had two players reach double figures in scoring led by James Burkes with 11 points followed by Autrail Manning with 10 points. Burkes was also tops on the team in rebounds with five and Manning had the team lead in assists with five on the night. Dillard was held to a 39.2 percent shooting clip from the field, made only 27.8 percent of their three point shots, and converted 50 percent of their free throws.

Belhaven will hit the court again on Saturday night as they host William Carey University in another Gulf Coast Athletic Conference matchup. The tipoff is slated for 7:00 PM in Rugg Arena.