BPC Splits With Blue Mountain

The Brewton-Parker College basketball teams returned to SSAC play on Thursday night in Blue Mountain, MS, against the Toppers of Blue Mountain College.

Women

The Lady Barons (7-3, 2-1) defeated the Toppers (45, 0-2) with an 80-72 performance at Tyler Gym.

'We got a good a good road win tonight,' Coach Steve Edwards mentioned afterward. 'Blue Mountain is wellcoached, and they played really hard tonight. We were good offensively and I'm satisfied with our effort on the defensive end. 'We have to continue to improve on the defensive side of the ball, but we are getting better,' Edwards added. The Lady Barons opened the game with back-to-back three-pointers and advanced to an 11-4 run in the first two minutes of play, leading by seven. After a couple of minutes of back-and-forth trips down the floor, the BPC lead was diminished by BMC to one point at the 5:31 mark. Brewton-Parker jumped back out to a five-point lead before Blue Mountain managed to close out the quarter down just 20-19. In the second quarter, the Lady Barons remained in control of the score early on as they built a seven-point lead in the opening minutes. Back-toback jumpers from the Toppers closed the lead to just three but Brewton-Parker continued to answer Blue Mountain. After building up another seven-point lead, Blue Mountain surged with a 6-0 run to pull within one point at the break with the Lady Barons leading 34-33. After the break, Blue Mountain remained close as they continued to respond to the Lady Barons' offensive efforts. The Toppers eventually captured the lead for the first time in the game, leading 4342. BMC advanced to a threepoint lead before Brewton-Parker reclaimed control of the score after going on a 6-0 run. The game was equalized 48-48 with just a few moments to play with the Toppers capturing a four-point lead before the Lady Barons leveled at 5252. The Lady Barons reclaimed the lead to close out the quarter with a 54-52 lead.

For the fourth quarter, both teams traded shots going back and forth between level scores. Blue Mountain gathered the lead after Brewton-Parker was leading 60-58. The Toppers went up by three points, but the Lady Barons quickly erased the deficit to recapture control of the score with a 64-63 lead. Brewton-Parker advanced to a sevenpoint lead with four minutes to play. The Toppers could not produce enough to equalize the game as BPC's lead did not drop below four points. Brewton- Parker closed out the game building up to an eightpoint lead to win 80-72.

A total of four Lady Barons earned double-digits on the night with Madison Evans and Alexia Galloway leading the charge with 17 points apiece.

Micah Bess gathered 13 points while Angel McRae notched 11 points. Bess also led BPC with nine rebounds with Galloway gathering a second-best eight. As a team, Brewton-Parker shot for 48.3% (29-of-60) from the field, 44.4% (8-of-18) from three, and 77.8% (14-of-18) from the charity stripe.

Brewton-Parker outrebounded the Toppers 41-32 on the night. Blue Mountain gave up 14 turnovers with the Lady Barons giving up 18. The Toppers scored 10 points off turnovers with Brewton-Parker scoring 14. Brewton-Parker's bench produced a total of 33 points with Blue Mountain's scoring 23.

Men

The Barons (1-10, 0-3 SSAC) fell to the Toppers (52, 1-2 SSAC) 72-57 at Tyler Gym. Blue Mountain opened with a 5-0 run to claim the lead early. The Barons were able to respond at the 17:49 mark but Blue Mountain returned the favor with a 9-0 run to lead by 10. The Barons scored back-to-back buckets pull under double digits, but BMC continued to answer the call, pulling out to a 12-point lead with less than nine minutes to play in the half. Over the course of the next few minutes, the Toppers built a 19-point lead with three minutes left in the opening half. The Toppers closed out the first half with a 39-20 lead.

In the second half, Blue Mountain quickly scored five points to move to a 24-point lead. Brewton-Parker followed with a 6-0 run, but the Toppers managed to keep distant from the Barons. BPC slowly chipped away at BMC's lead beginning in the final eight minutes of play. Unfortunately, the Barons were not able to produce enough stops on the defensive side of the ball and time ran out as they pulled the deficit down to 14, losing 7157.

As a team, BPC shot for 42.9% (21-of-49) from the field, 20% (3-of-15) from three, and 63.2% (12-of-19) from the free-throw line.

Floyd Davis led the offensive efforts for Brewton-Parker, scoring 20 points while shooting for a perfect 100% (6-of-6) from the field and 100% (2-of-2) from beyond the arc. Nic Pullum was the only other Baron with doubledigit points, scoring 14.

The Barons outrebounded the Toppers 36-31 with Davis leading BPC with seven while Pullum picked up five.

Brewton-Parker gave up 16 turnovers with Blue Mountain giving up nine. The Toppers also led 9-3 in steals. Blue Mountain produced 18 points from turnovers and notched 30 bench points with Brewton- Parker producing 19 from the bench as well as nine from turnovers.