Box Score
MOBILE, Ala.-The Belhaven men's basketball team held off the University of Mobile on the road Saturday night for a 73-69 Southern States Athletic Conference victory. The win pulls the Blazers to within a game of first place in the SSAC West Division standings. It was a back and forth battle that saw 10 ties and 26 lead changes.

The first half of Saturday night's game saw seven of those ties and 14 lead changes. Belhaven jumped out front on a three point field goal by Chris Cofield 17 seconds into the action. Belhaven held the edge until the 17:29 mark when Antonio Hester scored two of his game high 30 points to send Mobile in front for the first time at 4-3.

The seesaw battle commenced at that point as the teams battled back and forth until the break. The Rams largest advantage of the half was four points at 9-5 and the Blazers could only build a five point lead 33-28 that came on a field goal by senior Daryl Arnold with just under four minutes remaining in the half. The Blazers would own a 39-35 advantage when the buzzer sounded thanks to another Arnold basket with 24 seconds to go.

Mobile established momentum at the start of the second period and outscored the Blazers 17-6 in the first six minutes to construct its largest lead of the night at 52-45. Belhaven responded with a 10-2 scoring run which was capped a Datodrick Pinkston field giving the Blazers a 55-54 lead. The Rams answered by scoring seven of the games next nine points and found themselves on top again 61-57with 7:48 to play.

Trailing 63-62, Belhaven senior Woodie Howard hit the shot of the night dialing up a triple that would put the Blazers in front for good with 3:44 to go. The Blazers had to keep Mobile at bay as the Rams had some chances to even the game or regain the lead. Hester cut the Belhaven lead to 71-69 on an old fashion three point play and then the Rams were able to get the ball back with less than 25 seconds left. With eight seconds to go, Ji Kimbrough missed a potential game tying shot that was rebounded by Jordan Butts of Belhaven. The Rams sent Butts to the free throw line with a foul and he delivered by sinking two free throws to ice the game and give Belhaven the 73-69 win.

Belhaven (8-11, 3-5 SSAC) was led by Arnold with 21 points and four assists. Cofield chipped in with 13 points and Howard produced 12 points on the night to go along with a team high seven rebounds. The Blazers had a solid game shooting the basketball firing in 52.3 percent of their field goals (23-44). They also turned in their best performance of the season at the free throw line hitting 23 of 28 shots at the charity stripe. Belhaven won the battle of the boards outrebounding Mobile 29-27.

Mobile (8-9, 4-4 SSAC) had a 30 points effort from Hester to lead the Ram offense. He also picked up a double double with a game high 16 rebounds. Kimbrough added 10 points and was the only other double digit scorer for Mobile. The Rams were held to a 39.7 percent shooting percentage from the field by the Belhaven defense.

Belhaven will be back in action on Thursday night when they host William Carey University in an SSAC West matchup beginning at 7:30 PM. Fans can follow the action through live stats by clicking here.