Box Score
MARIETTA, Ga.-The Belhaven men's basketball team suffered a 70-53 setback at Southern Polytechnic State University in Southern States Athletic Conference action on Saturday night. The Blazers spotted the Runnin' Hornets a 7-0 lead to start the game and could never recover.

Belhaven (1-6, 0-2 SSAC) trailed from start to finish as Southern Poly's defense kept the Blazers off the board for the first six plus minutes of the game. Trailing 7-0, Belhaven put in the first the points of the night on a field goal by freshman Jerrial Dawson at the 13:37 mark of the opening frame. Sophomore Chris Cofield followed with a jumper 28 seconds later bringing the Blazers to within three points at 7-4 with 13:09 to go in the half. Unfortunately, it's the closest Belhaven would be the rest of the contest.

In a five minute span, Southern Poly (4-1, 2-0 SSAC) expanded the lead to 13 points at 20-7 on a field goal from Cortez Irby with 8:11 to go until halftime. Irby's basket capped a 13-3 run that put the Hornets in the driver's seat. Belhaven was able to close the gap to 30-23 just before halftime on a bucket by junior Terence Stringfellow, but Southern Poly expanded the lead back to double digits at 34-23 a minute and twenty seconds into the second half. Belhaven pulled to with nine points on three separate occasions early in the final frame, but couldn't put together a scoring run to threaten Southern Poly. The Hornets largest lead of the night was 55-36 and it came at the 7:23 mark of the second half.

Junior Jordan Butts had a game high 13 points to lead Belhaven on the offensive end of the floor. Brittion Smith reached double digits in scoring Saturday night adding 10 points to the mix for the Blazers. Andrew Marshall led Belhaven on the boards with eight rebounds while chipping in five points.

The Blazers struggled from the field hitting just 31.1 percent of their field goals (19-61). Belhaven had 25 percent of their triples find the mark (5-20) and converted 71.4 percent of their free throws (10-14). The Blazers committed 23 turnovers and lost the rebounding battle 39-35.

Southern Poly was led by Tyrone Brinson with 12 points and seven rebounds off the bench. The Hornets had a balanced attack on offense with 11 different players scoring at least one point in the game. Irby and Bobby Smith each chipped in nine points and Trey Payne along with Brandon Williams contributed eight points each. Southern Poly's reserve players had a big night as the Hornets bench scored 34 of the 70 points.

Southern Poly knocked down 43.3 percent of their field goals (26-60), hit 25 percent of their triples (5-20), and converted 65 percent of their attempts at the charity stripe (13-20). The Hornets turned the ball over 18 times Saturday night.

The Blazers will hit the court again on Tuesday night when they return to Rugg Arena to entertain Martin Methodist College in a non-conference matchup. The game is slated to tip-off at 7:30 PM.