JACKSON, Miss. - The Belhaven Men's Basketball team pulled off late theatrics on Saturday as they took down Maryville College 78-76 in what was a rematch of last season's CCS Tournament Championship game.

The win came in comeback fashion for the Blazers who struggled offensively throughout the early parts of the contest. Maryville opened the game with the hot hand, jumping out to an early double-digit lead before the first media timeout of the game.

Despite Maryville's offensive success and the Blazers' woes, Belhaven always remained within touching distance of the Scots, keeping hopes alive despite scoring droughts. Maryville led wire to wire in the first half and took a 40-31 lead into the break at halftime.

The Scots continued to hold an advantage in the early minutes of the second half and as the game crossed into the final quarter of play, Maryville took their largest lead of the night, a 14-point advantage with just over nine minutes on the clock. 

Over the next four and a half minutes, Belhaven went on a 17-2 run that saw them take their first lead of the night on a putback dunk from Jermario Hersey. That lead change sparked a back and forth finish to the contest with Maryville retaking the lead at the 3:28 mark and again at the 1:31 mark.

Late free throws and defensive stands sealed the win for the Blazers as Judah Jordan followed up a three-pointer that gave Belhaven the lead with a 2-2 trip to the free throw line. With 2.0 seconds left and the Blazers up 78-76, Maryville forced a turnover on an inbounds pass and hit what seemed to be the game-winning three pointer until, upon review, the shot was not off in the allotted remaining time.

The win marks the first for Belhaven over a strong Maryville program and improves the Blazers to 9-5 overall and 1-1 in conference play. Jonathan Lucas led the way offensively with a season-high 17 points including a stellar 11-13 night from the free throw line. Jacob Reese and Jermario Hersey proved invaluable off the bench with Reese scoring 15 points and pulling down 9 rebounds while Hersey added 12 points and 10 boards.

The Blazers return to action on Thursday, January 11th as they head out on their first conference road trip of the season. Belhaven will face off against Covenant in Georgia with tipoff set for 7:30 PM CT.