JACKSON, Miss. -  The Belhaven Men's Basketball team played host to the Birmingham-Southern College Panthers for their 2020-21 season home opener, and the Blazers came away with a hard fought 84-80 victory.

The Blazers opened the game with back-to-back three pointers from sophomore guard Luke Couch and junior forward Korri Edwards on their first two possessions of the game and battled the Panthers throughout the opening minutes of the first half as both teams traded the lead several times. The Panthers held a 16-15 lead with just over 14 minutes remaining in the half; however, the Blazers went on a 10-8 scoring run to take a 25-24 lead with around six minutes left. Both teams continued the back and forth battle throughout the remainder of the half leading to a 38-38 tie as the teams headed into the locker room.

Neither team could pull away from the other in the start of the second half as the game remained tied at 49 apiece with 14 and a half minutes remaining in the game. However, the Blazers would eventually seize a 63-54 lead with just over 11 minutes to go in the game and never relinquished that lead to the Panthers. The Panthers cut the game down to one possession with just three seconds left, but the 84-80 victory was sealed with a successful free throw attempt from sophomore guard Rian Shields to give the Blazers their first win of the season.

The Blazers saw five players in double-digit scoring for the game as Luke Couch led the way with 21 points with sophomore guard Matthew McMillan tacking on 14 points. Junior guards Joseph Jones and Rance Champ added 13 points apiece, while junior forward Terrance Anderson, Jr., had 11 points to round out the double digit scorers. Korri Edwards had nine points and Rian Shields has three points to round out the scoring for the Blazers, while Shields also had a team-high seven assists during the contest. The Blazers shot 50 percent from the floor, 31-62, including 13-32 for 40.6 percent from three, and went 9-14 for 64.3 percent from the free throw line.

The Blazers improve to 1-1 overall on the season and will begin the American Southwest Conference part of their schedule as they play host to Sul Ross State University on Thursday, January 7. The action is set to tip-off at 7:30 p.m.

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