Box Score
JACKSON, Miss.- The Belhaven men's basketball team held back Brewton-Parker College for a much needed 68-58 Southern States Athletic Conference victory Saturday night in Rugg Arena. The Blazers built a 16 point lead in the first half, but the Barons closed the gap to three with just over seven minutes to go in the game. However, Belhaven did not give any more ground and held on for the win.

Brewton-Parker (2-12, 0-6 SSAC) briefly held the lead on two separate occasions in the first half, but other than that Belhaven (7-10, 4-2 SSAC) was in front on the scoreboard most of the night. The Barons Greg Butler scored the first points of the night on a jump shot with 17:22 showing on the clock. Curt Hall knotted the score at 2-2 with the Blazers first bucket of the game nearly four minutes into the contest. Both offenses' sputtered early and had trouble putting points on the board.

Following a layup by Warren LaBeauf at the 15:18 mark of the first half that gave Brewton-Parker the lead back 4-2, Belhaven finally kicked the offense into gear with a 12-0 run resulting in the first double digit lead of the night at 14-4. Jerrial Dawson knocked down a triple and three free throws accounting for six of the 12 points.

The Barons responded with a quick 5-0 run to close the gap to 14-9 with 11:13 to play in the first, but the Blazers would quickly push the advantage to 23-12 just over three minutes later. Even though it was still early, Belhaven appeared to be headed for a blowout victory when Dawson fired in another triple with 59 seconds left in the first half giving the Blazers what would be their largest lead of the night at 43-27. Brewton-Parker salvaged a small slice of momentum with the final two points of the half on a basket by Jermaine Jackson.

Belhaven kept the Barons at a safe distance to start the second half and led 52-42 with 13:37 to play. That's when Brewton-Parker began its final charge with a 10-3 run to pull within three at 55-52. LeBeauf's jumper to cap the run with 7:26 to go made it a one possession game. The Blazers were able to regroup on free throws by Datodrick Pinkston and Jonathan Ratliff as well a tip-in by Pinkston that pushed the lead back to eight at 60-52.  Then another 7-2 run by Belhaven essentially put the game away with 2:03 left as the Blazers held a 67-54 lead en route to the final outcome of 68-58.

Belhaven had four players reach double digits in the point column led by Jordan Butts with 13. Dawson followed with 12 points while Ratliff and Hall each contributed 10 points apiece. Pinkston had a game high 10 rebounds to go along with five points. Butts and Hall also had four assists. The Blazers ended the night hitting 20 of 53 shots from the field (37.7%) while converting 22 of 33 free throw attempts (66.7%).

Brewton-Parker was paced by Darrie Stephens with 16 points and eight rebounds followed by Jermaine Jackson with 14 points. Mark Jones had four assists to pace the Barons in that category. Brewton-Parker connected on 24 of 51 shots from the field (47.1%) and converted 9 of 14 free throws (64.3%). The Barons out-rebounded Belhaven 38-33, but the difference in the game was at the charity stripe.

The Blazers will take the court again on Thursday night when they host SSAC rival Spring Hill College beginning at 7:30 PM in Rugg Arena.