JACKSON, Miss. - The Belhaven Men's Basketball team picked up their second win of the season and first conference victory on Thursday winning a 79-77 thriller at home against Sul Ross State University. The Blazers secured their victory late on the back of a three pointer by Matthew McMillan with just two seconds left in the game. 

Playing host to the visitors from Alpine, Texas, the Blazers opened the scoring on Thursday night and traded runs with the Lobos early in the contest. The Blazers took their largest lead of the first half at the 13:16 mark after Luke Couch connected on a three point shot to put Belhaven up by four. 

Sul Ross pushed back after the Couch three to regain the lead and outscored the Blazers 22-11 in the final seven minutes of the first half to take a 10-point lead into the break. 

Belhaven was able to counter in the second half though after a pair of made threes by McMillan and Couch cut the lead inside single digits. The Blazers tied the game at the 13:35 mark of the second half and took their first lead since the first half with 11:51 remaining in the game. The Blazers were able to push their lead out to five points but the visitors closed the gap with the two teams trading baskets late in the contest. 

With 31 seconds left in the game, Julian Paredes put the visitors up 77-76 on a layup. On the ensuring Belhaven possession, the Blazers missed a three point attempt with 10 seconds left and fouled Sul Ross' Tristen Licon. The Lobos' guard missed both free throw attempts allowing the Blazers to set up an inbounds play following a timeout taken with just over four seconds left in the game. Joseph Jones was able to hit Matthew McMillan moving towards the corner and the Blazers' sophomore hit a turnaround three point attempt with a pair of defenders on him to give the Blazers their winning advantage.

On the night, the visitors were led by Julian Paredes who finished with 26 points and eight rebounds while going 6-8 from beyond the arc. Tristen Licon finished the night with 20 points and seven rebounds for the Lobos. 

Luke Couch led all Blazers with 29 points, going 8-15 from the field and 2-4 from three. Couch also went 11-16 from the free throw line and picked up a pair of steals in the game. Matthew McMillan finished with 19 points in 34 minutes and was 5-11 from three including the game winner. 

As a team the Blazers shot just over 42% from the field and finished the night 10-26 from three. 
With the win, the Blazers move to 2-1 on the season and are now working with back-to-back wins after an 84-80 over Birmingham-Southern earlier in January. The Lobos fall to 3-4 on the year and will look to get back on track Saturday at Louisiana College. 

The Blazers are back in action Saturday, January 9th playing host to ASC foe Howard Payne. Tip off against the Yellow Jackets is set for 3:30 PM at Rugg Arena. 

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