Box Score
Hattiesburg, MS-In a battle for sole possession of second place in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference, the Belhaven men's basketball team fell to William Carey University 98-88 on Monday night in Hattiesburg. The game was dominated by both offenses as each team drilled over 50 percent of their shots from the field. Rob Wallace and Nathaniel Roche' had 21 points and 19 points respectively for the Blazers, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to overcome William Carey.

The first basket of the night was scored almost two minutes into the contest on a dunk by Brandon Cooks of the Crusaders after he rebounded a missed shot by teammate Chase Combest. Williams Carey (19-4, 9-3 GCAC) reeled of three more unanswered points and led 5-0 at the 16:57 mark of the first half. Belhaven got on the board with a field goal by Roche' and then a pair of free throws by Larell Bailey pulled the Blazers to within one point at 5-4 with 15:42 on the first half clock.

Belhaven (18-6, 8-4 GCAC) managed to keep it close during the next nine minutes and trailed 28-24 with 6:21 to go until halftime. The Crusaders then engineered a 9-2 run to open up a ten point 36-26 lead with just under four minutes left on the first half clock. However, the Blazers regained some momentum right before the buzzer sounded on a three point basket by Wallace to cut the Belhaven deficit to five points at 43-38 at halftime.

Belhaven came out early in the second half and chipped away at the Crusader lead eventually knotting the score at 46-46 with just over 17 minutes to go in the contest. However, the Blazers could not grab the edge as Drew Meyerchick fired in a triple a few seconds later to put William Carey on top for good. Meyerchick's three pointer ignited a 20-6 run that resulted in a 66-52 lead for the Crusaders with 12:46 left in the game. The scoring run was the turning point in the game as Belhaven could get no closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Wallace's 21 points was his second highest point total this season and his biggest output since scoring 23 against Loyola University on January 21st. Wallace drained 8 of his 10 field goal opportunities in the game. Roche' reached double figures in scoring for the 14th time this season and a big night in the paint for Belhaven. A.J. Taylor added 13 points on three of five shooting from the field to round out Belhaven's double digit scorers. Krayleon Winston had a team high seven rebounds to go along with nine points in 21 minutes of work on the floor.

As a team, the Blazers connected on 55.2 percent of their field goals, 45.5 percent of their three point shots, and converted 65.5 percent of their attempts at the free throw line. Unfortunately, William Carey was just a little bit better making 59.3 percent of their field goal attempts. Both teams had good looks at the basket throughout the game combining for 78 points in the paint. The Crusaders had a 35-28 edge on the boards including 11 on the offensive end.

William Carey had strong performances from Brandon Cooks and Cory Smith who turned in 26 points and 23 points respectively. Meyerchick added 14 points, Daniel Huggins tossed in 12, and Marcus Spann tallied 11 points to round out the double digit scorers for the Crusaders. Cooks paced William Carey in rebounding with eight total boards.

Belhaven will return home to battle Xavier University of New Orleans on Thursday night in another GCAC contest beginning at 7:30 PM. The Blazers fell to Xavier in the first meeting of the season between the two schools 75-68 on January 28th.