Box Score
Jackson, MS-The Belhaven men's basketball team bounced back from a tough loss to Tougaloo this past Saturday with a resounding 87-59 over Blue Mountain College Tuesday night in Rugg Arena. The Blazers have now posted two wins over the Toppers this season after opening the season with a 68-63 win at Blue Mountain November 6th.

Belhaven (3-1) was on fire from the field and had their best night shooting the basketball so far this season especially from behind the three point arc. The Blazers drilled 62.5 percent of their triple tries and made 45.5 percent of their total field goals. Eight of the treys came in the first half which was key in building a 12 point halftime advantage.

Belhaven's Rob Wallace led all scorers with 26 points and dished out a team high five assists. Through four games, Wallace is averaging 18.8 points per game and in three of the four games he has scored 20 points or more. In two contests against the Toppers, Wallace has a combined total of 53 points.

Belhaven had three other players reach double figures in scoring Tuesday as Forest Yarbrough tossed in 12 points off the bench followed by Daryl Arnold and Nathaniel Roch'e with 10 points each. Roch'e led the Blazers on the boards with five rebounds and added a couple of blocked shots. As a team, the Blazers had six blocks in the game, 23 assists and made 85 percent of their free throws which are all season highs.

Blue Mountain (3-3) had a pair of players in double figures led by Lakendrick McCullum with 13 points. He also contributed three blocked shots and two assists. DeVante Pulliam had 11 points and a game high nine rebounds in 21 minutes of time on the floor. Belhaven's defense did a good job keeping the Toppers in check holding them to a 36.5 percent shooting clip from the field. Blue Mountain also struggled from behind the arc going 3 for 14 in the game and at the free throw line didn't fare much better at 10 for 19. The Blazers forced 23 Blue Mountain turnovers which they converted into 24 points. The Toppers did have a slight rebounding edge at 42-39 for the game.

The opening minute of the game was a sign of things to come as Wallace drilled a triple to put the Blazers up 3-0. Wallace made good on five of his eight attempts from three point range in game. Belhaven went on top by six points at 17-11 with 12:02 on the first half clock on a three pointer by Forest Yarbrough, but then the Toppers who kept it close through the first 12 minutes went on a 9-0 run that was capped by a Tyler Shaver trey giving the Toppers at 20-17 lead with 9:04 in the first half. However, that would be their first and only lead of the game which didn't last long as Yarbrough quickly tied the game at 20-20 with a triple of his own 14 seconds later.

The Blazers went on to outscore Blue Mountain 23-11 over the final nine minutes of the half to take a 43-31 edge at halftime. Belhaven picked up right where they left off in the second period and promptly pushed their lead to 59-36 with just under 15 minutes remaining in the game. The Toppers could not recover from that point on and could get no closer than 19 points the rest of the night as Belhaven pulled away for the 87-59 win.

The Blazers will hit the road for the next four games starting with Truett-McConnell College on Friday night at 7:00 PM in Southern States Athletic Conference cross division play. The Blazers will then play Emmanuel College on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 PM which is also an SSAC cross division matchup.