Box Score
Jackson, MS-It was a tough Saturday afternoon for the Belhaven men's basketball team as William Carey University rolled to a 79-46 win in a Southern States Athletic Conference West Division contest in Rugg Arena. The Blazers could never get on track and with the exception of a 2-0 lead in the opening minute trailed the rest of the night.

Belhaven (14-13, 4-5 SSAC) was led by Nathaniel Roche' who had a game high 17 points while grabbing six rebounds. For only the third time this season, Rob Wallace was held to single digits in the scorebook as he was Belhaven's next highest scorer with six points. Detrick Johnson and Brittion Smith finished the afternoon with five points each and Terence Stringfellow had four points and a team best seven rebounds.

The Blazers struggled from the field making only 30.6 percent of their shots in the contest (19-62). Belhaven was 2 of 23 from three point land (8.7%) and could not find the bottom of the net at the free throw line converting on just 37.5 percent of their attempts at the charity stripe (6-16). William Carey owned the boards outrebounding the Blazers 49-29 while scoring 32 points in the paint. Belhaven committed 12 turnovers resulting in 18 Crusader points and the Blazer bench was outscored 41-13.

William Carey (15-10, 6-3 SSAC), who has won their last six games, was paced by Verice Cloyd who came off the bench and scored 14 points while dishing out six assists. Drew Myerchick tossed in 13 points and had a couple of key three pointers in the second half. Marcus Spann and Kevin Branch rounded out the Crusader double digit scores with 11 points apiece. Donzedrick Smith and Bassanio Green led William Carey on the boards with seven rebounds each. Branch wasn't far behind with six rebounds to go along with his point production.

William Carey was hot from the floor nailing 55.6 percent of their field goals on the afternoon (30-54). The Crusaders bagged 47.1 percent of their triples (8-17) and made good on 57.9 percent of their free throw opportunities (11-19). The only blemish for William Carey was in the turnover column with 19 miscues. However, Belhaven was unable to take full advantage of the turnovers and could only generate nine points off the William Carey errors.

Belhaven got on the board first with a field goal from Smith following a steal and fast break to the basket to make it a 2-0 game with 19:12 remaining in the first half. Unfortunately, it was the last time Belhaven would see the lead for the rest of the afternoon. Midway through the opening period William Carey had pushed the edge to double digits at 25-13 on a three point play by Spann. The Blazers deficit stayed in double digits the rest of the contest as the Crusaders went up by 21 points 46-25 at halftime. William Carey continued to build upon their lead in the second half and led by as many as 37 points 79-42 with three minutes to go.

Belhaven will try and get back on track Thursday night when they play host to Loyola University in another SSAC West Division game in Rugg Arena. The Blazers are battling for a spot in the conference tournament and currently reside in fifth place in the division a half game behind Loyola for the fourth spot and a half game ahead of Faulkner who is in sixth place. The top five teams in both the west and east division earn a spot in the SSAC tournament. Belhaven lost the first meeting of the season at Loyola 79-70 on January 22nd. Thursday's tip-off is slated for 7:30 PM and fans can follow all the action through live stats by clicking here.