JACKSON, Miss. - The Belhaven Men's Basketball team was beaten by Hardin-Simmons on Thursday in the Blazers' conference home opener by a final score of 81-54. 

The Blazers fell behind early in the contest with some streaky shooting offensively. Trailing 39-22 at the half, Belhaven cut the lead down to 11 quickly to start the second half but were unable to close the gap beyond that point.

Belhaven was led in scoring by Arother Ratcliff who finished with 19 points on 9-16 shooting while also adding a team-high five rebounds and five steals. Donovan Givens finished with 10 points on 2-7 shooting from beyond the arc and picked up a pair of rebounds.

As a team, the Blazers went 20-53 (37.7%) from the field and 7-23 (30.4%) from behind the three-point arc. The team came up with 25 total rebounds and forced the Cowboys into 16 turnovers. 

Belhaven will look to bounce back on Saturday when they host McMurry University in Rugg Arena at 3 PM.

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