Box Score
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Belhaven women's basketball squad picked up a key Southern States Athletic Conference victory with a 63-55 decision over in-state rival William Carey. Belhaven trailed at halftime, but put together an excellent second half to halt a three-game losing streak in conference play.

People say that winning cures all things. While that may not always be true, the Blazers feel much better after getting back into the win column.

Thursday night's victory over the Crusaders was Belhaven's first win in exactly two weeks, when they thumped Spring Hill in front of a packed Rugg Arena. The Blazers struggled in the three games since the Spring Hill victory and needed a boost which they got at William Carey.

On Thursday night, the Blazers were able to put everything behind them and look ahead to a season that could still provide outstanding results.

The Blazers had their resolve tested early as the team got down by as many as nine points during the first ten minutes of the game. Instead of looking towards one player to get them out of an offensive slump, Belhaven's entire starting lineup took the reins.

After trailing 20-11, Belhaven (8-12, 5-5 SSAC) went on a 16-11 run to finish the half and pull back to within four points at the intermission.

William Carey (7-11, 3-8 SSAC) took control of the momentum once again coming out of the locker rooms thanks in part to Crystal Tucker's sharpshooting to begin the half. The Blazers eventually adjusted to Tucker and forced her into multiple mistakes, creating more opportunities for themselves on the offensive end.

With 12 minutes remaining in the game, Erika Leflore hit a bucket in the lane to tie the score for the first time since the opening tipoff, at 41 points apiece.

The two rivals traded buckets back and forth until the waning minutes of the game when the Blazers were able to put a small seven-point run together to take a 55-50 lead.

Belhaven would never trail again in the contest and pulled out the victory with a gritty second half performance.

A variety of Blazers got into the scoring column on the evening with Alisha Rayborn leading the way. The senior point guard had a high efficiency night with 15 points and six rebounds.

Leflore was the only other player in double figures, finishing with 11 points and five rebounds, a few boards away from her normal 8.5 average.

Four other Belhaven players had at least eight points in the game including: Sarah Carr (9 points), TaShayla Steede (9 points), Ashley Wakefield (8 points) and Sierra Cavitt (8 points).  Wakefield had averaged nearly 20 points a game over her last six contests, but became more of a distributor on a tough shooting night.

William Carey had two players in double figures with Vechatita Bonner and Crystal Tucker scoring 12 and 16 points respectively. Tucker also pulled down a game high nine rebounds just missing a double double.

The win gets Belhaven back to a .500 record in the SSAC at 5-5 and they won't have much time to celebrate as they travel to New Orleans to take on Loyola on Saturday afternoon. The tip-off is slated for 2:00 PM.