Box Score CLINTON, Miss. – The Belhaven men's basketball team lost the 2013-14 season opener Friday night to Dalton State College 79-73 at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi College. The Blazers rallied from an 11 point second half deficit to pull within two points with less than a minute to play, but were unable to make some key stops to complete the comeback.

"I felt like we were a little nervous at the beginning of the game and couldn't get some high percentage shots to fall," said Belhaven Head Coach John Aiken. "I thought we settled down well offensively in the second half, but we couldn't get a lot of stops on the defensive end of the floor."

Despite their early offensive woes, the Blazers were able to jump out to a 9-4 lead with 17:10 showing on the first half clock. Dalton State (2-0) then went on an 11-2 run over the next seven minutes to grab a 15-11 edge. The Roadrunners would never trail on the scoreboard from that point forward.

Dalton State closed the first half on a last second layup by Galen Smith to take a 41-33 lead into the break. An old fashion three point play by Demetrice Jacobs gave the Roadrunners their biggest advantage of the night at 65-54 with 10 minutes go.

Trailing 75-67 with just under four minutes to play, Belhaven (0-1) went on a 6-0 run and all of sudden were within one possession of tying or taking the lead. A layup by Chris Cofield closed the scoring burst with 35 seconds on the clock, trimming the deficit to 75-73. However, the final four points of the night belonged to Dalton State. Preston Earle hit a couple of clutch free throws and Ricky Sears closed the night on a layup with eight seconds to play, sealing the win.

Belhaven had three players land in double figures, led by Curt Hall with 19 points and six rebounds. Deon Bedford followed with 17 points and Jonathan Ratliff just missed a double double with 11 points and nine rebounds. Chris Cofield dished out a game high six assists and came up with four steals.

"Curt Hall may be one of the best competitors in the NAIA," said Aiken. "He gave a great effort for us tonight, playing 38 minutes while shooting 8 of 11 from the field. Deon Bedford played well for us tonight as well and I thought Jonathan Ratliff competed really hard despite being slowed a little bit by injury early this week in practice."

As a team, the Blazers outrebounded Dalton State 43-32 and limited the turnovers to 16 while forcing 17 Roadrunner miscues. One of the difference makers for Dalton State was their bench, outscoring Belhaven's reserves 34-14.

Ricky Sears turned in a 20 points performance off the bench for Dalton State to lead all scorers. Three other Roadrunners posted double figure point totals with Jacobs, Sean Tate, and Anthony Hilliard recording 12, 11, and 10 respectively. Hilliard and Jacobs were the leading rebounders with six boards apiece.

Belhaven will hit the court again on Monday night when the team heads to New Orleans, LA to battle Dillard University at 8:00 PM.

"We'll have to play better defensively in order to be successful at Dillard on Monday," said Aiken. "They will be very similar to Dalton State in that they like to run and drive the ball and we have to find a way to shut them down on the offensive end of the floor."