Box Score JACKSON, Miss. – The Belhaven men's basketball team held off Blue Mountain College 77-70 in a Southern States Athletic Conference showdown at Rugg Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Blazers and Toppers exchanged the lead 13 times and tied the score on eight other occasions before Belhaven was finally able to pull away late in the game. It was the second consecutive victory for the Blazers.

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"Offensively we played well and did a lot of good things today," said Belhaven Head Coach John Aiken. "I thought our guys overcame some adversity and kept battling. The thing I was most proud of was in the final two minutes when we controlled the offensive glass to keep possessions alive. Overall this was a great win; Blue Mountain really needed a win and is a solid team, but we found a win to pick up the victory."

Belhaven (9-9, 7-3 SSAC) jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the first four minutes and then controlled the scoreboard for the majority of the first half. The Blazers enjoyed their biggest advantage of the day with 11:46 left in the first half when Datodrick Pinkston dropped in a layup to make it an 18-11 score. Blue Mountain (6-13, 1-8 SSAC) stayed close and eventually pulled in front 31-28 on a three point play by Shane Butler with just over two minutes left in the opening period. However, just like Thursday night, Belhaven turned in a strong final two minutes of a half, outscoring the Toppers 7-0 to lead 35-31 at the break.

Neither side established a strong foothold in the second half, with the largest lead maxing out at seven points. It wound up being the final score of 77-70. The final frame featured eight lead changes with the eighth one taking place with just over three minutes to go. Trailing 68-67, Jordan Bedford put the Blazers in front for good with his fourth triple of the game to make it 70-68. The bucket kick started a 10-2 run to secure the win. Clutch free throw shooting and rebounding by the Blazers held back Blue Mountain to close out the contest.

Bedford led the Belhaven offense again with 24 points after scoring a career high 37 in the come from behind win on Thursday at Bethel. Two other Blazers posted double figure points totals with Chris Cofield and Deon Bedford contributing 16 and 10 respectively. Jonathan Ratliff had a team best seven rebounds and eight points while Pinkston tossed in eight points with a game high eight assists.

The Blazers shot at a 49.1 percent clip from the field (28-57), fired in 37.5 percent of their triples (6-16), and converted 68.2 percent of their free throws (15-22). Belhaven out-rebounded Blue Mountain 32-27 and forced 15 Topper turnovers.

Blue Mountain had four players score in double figures, led by Jarvis Fisher with 14 points. DeVante' Pulliam chipped in 12 points followed by Corbin Harris with 11 and Shane Butler with 10. Pulliam grabbed seven rebounds while Butler along with Harris each dished out six assists. The Toppers made 51.9 percent of their shots in the game (28-54).

Belhaven will be back on the court Tuesday night when the team travels to Xavier University (LA) for a non-conference matchup starting at 7:30 PM.