Box Score
JACKSON, Miss.-The Belhaven men's basketball team locked down its first Southern States Athletic Conference win of the season Saturday night defeating Truett-McConnell College 75-65 in Rugg Arena. The Blazers also snapped a two game losing streak and gain some momentum heading into the Christmas Holiday.

Belhaven (4-9, 1-3 SSAC) opened the game with four quick points coming on field goals from Chris Cofield and Andrew Marshall with just over a minute gone by in the first half. Truett-McConnell (7-5, 2-2 SSAC) then ripped off a 7-2 run to grab its first lead of the game at 7-6 on a layup from Tyron Louis with 17:11 on the first half clock The Louis bucket initiated a seesaw battle  over the next 15 minutes resulting in 12 lead changes and one tie.

With 2:21 left in the half and the game tied at 28-28, Belhaven kicked off an 8-2 run to close the opening 20 minutes and gain a foothold on the game. Cofield had the go ahead basket and a pair of free throws from Woodie Howard pushed the Blazers to the 36 point mark. Truett-McConnell's Mattavias Scott closed the half with a layup five seconds prior to the buzzer sounding leaving Belhaven with a 36-30 edge going into the locker room.

Belhaven continued to maintain the lead early in the second period, although the Bears were able to stay within striking distance. The Blazers failed to surge ahead any further than seven points during that stretch. Leading 52-45 with 12:26 to go, Truett-McConnell made one final charge to get back in the game using a 9-2 scoring run to tie the game at 54-54 with just over 10 minutes to play.

However, Belhaven's defense stepped up when Howard blocked a shot attempt from Anthoney Dorsey that would have given the Bears their first lead since the opening half. Andrew Marshall grabbed the rebound and sent it up the floor to Brittion Smith, who found Howard for an open layup that gave the Blazers the lead back for good at 56-54. Belhaven never looked back and expanded the advantage to 66-56 with 6:52 on the clock. The Blazers enjoyed their largest lead of night with 40 seconds left after a pair of free throws from Cofield registered a score of 75-63. Dorsey notched the final points of the game on a jumper with 27 to go producing the 75-65 final tally.

Daryl Arnold had a season high 26 points and grabbed a season best 10 rebounds to spark the Blazers on Saturday night. It was also Arnold's first double double of the year which boosted he scoring and rebounding average to 14 points and 6.2 rebounds per game respectively. Jordan Butts added 16 points off the bench, with nine of them coming at the free throw line. Butts was a big reason the Blazer bench outscored the Truett-McConnell reserves 31-10. Other key contributors were Cofield with 10 points and four assists, Howard had nine points, and Marshall recorded six points and nine rebounds.

The Blazers had a big advantage at the charity stripe on Saturday night going 22 for 32 (68.8%) compared to Truett-McConnell who was 4 of 10 (40%). Belhaven was 26 of 67 from the field (38.8%) and 1 of 12 from three point land. The Blazers made up for some missed shots by forcing 26 Bear turnovers which translated to 33 points on the offensive end of the floor.

Dorsey turned in a 20 point night for Truett-McConnell followed by 14 points from Roderick Bombard. Brandon Joiner secured a team high 11 rebounds and chipped in seven points. The Bears hit 28 of their 58 field goal attempts (48.3%) and knocked down 5 of their 17 triples (29.4%).

Belhaven will be back on the court December 27th when they travel to Hattiesburg for an exhibition game against NCAA Division I Southern Mississippi at 7:00 PM. The Blazers will then host Rust College on Thursday December 29th in the Magnolia Classic beginning at 7:00 PM in Rugg Arena.