BLUE MOUNTAIN, Miss. – The William Carey Men's Basketball team opened conference play with a 76-70 victory over Blue Mountain Christian Thursday night at Tyler Gymnasium.
"Give both teams credit for playing very hard tonight," said Head Coach Steve Knight. "We controlled the second half, but they fought back every time. We made some big plays to fend them off. Proud of our guy's effort for 40 minutes. Blue Mountain will win their share of games in our league."
Ashton Campbell got things going for Carey, opening the game with a three-point basket. BMCU responded with an 11-2 run to take the lead seven minutes into the game. The Carey offense stayed focused and with just under eight minutes left in the half, a Makeem Roberts three pointer gave the Crusaders a 22-21 lead.
The Toppers quickly retook the lead on a Kam Carter jumper, but Campbell and Roberts followed with four straight points to put the Crusaders back in front. From there WCU pulled away to a six-point advantage with five minutes remaining but BMCU over the next minute cut the deficit to two points at 32-20.
However, Jamar Jenkins and Chad Jones drained back-to-back three pointers to make it an eight-point lead for WCU with Carey going on to take a 40-35 lead into the break.
In the opening minutes of the second half, Ankerion Gross and Cam Brown gave the Crusaders their largest lead of the night at 45-35. The Toppers would not go down without a fight and with twelve minutes on the clock managed to cut the deficit to 55-53.
Carey responded over the next four minutes pushing the lead to eight at 62-54. Again, BMCU fought their way back within two points but would get no closer. From there the Crusaders quickly pushed their lead to six and sealed the victory making four of six free throws down the stretch.
Despite losing the turnover battle in the second half the Crusaders out rebounded the Toppers 22-13 while getting 30 points off the bench for the game compared to 24 from Blue Mountain.
Jamar Jenkins led four Crusaders in double figures with fourteen points while Cam Brown and Dylan Brumfield each added thirteen points. Makeem Roberts finished with ten points and nine rebounds.
Carey is back in action Saturday, as they take on UT-Southern in SSAC action. Play is set to begin at 2:00 pm.
Commentaires