Brewton-Parker Men’s Basketball Plays Tough

Courtesy of BPC

The Brewton-Parker College men's basketball team played two games last week. They faced William Carey (MS), and Blue Mountain (MS). vs. William Carey

A statement was made in Gillis Gymnasium on Thursday night as the Brewton-Parker men’s basketball program hosted William Carey to open SSAC play. The Barons (21, 1-0 SSAC) downed the Crusaders (1-3, 0-1 SSAC) in a hard-fought 64-49 battle. Thursday night’s win marks the first victory over WCU in SSAC play, dating back to 2011.

William Carey utilized a 6-1 run in the first minute and a half to take an early lead. A trey from Lance Smith pulled the Barons’ deficit to just one possession shortly after. The Crusaders responded with a three of their own to lead 11-6 with 17:03 on the clock.

After a good jumper from Smith, WCU swiftly scored back-to-back buckets to lead by seven. A high-flying slam from Grant Sanders off an alleyoop pass from Smith sparked the BPC offense, moving the Barons closer to a level score. Brewton-Parker went on a 6-0 run to pull William Carey’s advantage to just one point with 14:17 left in the half.

After a few moments of back-and-forth action, the Barons captured the lead at the 10:03 mark with a huge three from Jordan Johnson, the first score of an 8-0 run. With a 22-16 lead in hand, BPC’s advantage was diminished to one point as WCU scored a quick five points.

Brewton-Parker jumped out to a five-point lead with five minutes remaining, highlighted by another alley-oop from Sanders with the help of Chance Hatcher. BPC managed to get to a sixpoint lead at the 2:08 mark.

William Carey connected on a three-pointer with 1:41 left before Smith closed the half with a layup to give the Barons a 33-28 lead at the break.

A 5-0 opening run from the Crusaders quickly diminished the Barons’ lead, leveling the score at 33-33 in the first minute of the half. Smith connected on a threepointer to give Brewton-Parker the needed edge to reclaim the lead.

William Carey answered right back to pull the deficit back to just one point, but the Barons continued to respond. Over the course of the next few minutes, Brewton-Parker went on an 11-2 run to pull away to the first double- digit lead of the evening.

The run was capped off with a jumper from Hatcher to give BPC a 4938 advantage with 11:28 remaining. William Carey took advantage of a few missed opportunities from Brewton-Parker, finding six points within a minute to pull the score back to a two-possession game with less than eight minutes to play.

The Barons fought through the final stretch of the game, besting the Crusaders by outscoring them 15-6 in the final seven minutes. BPC outscored WCU 31-21 in the half to secure the 64-49 victory.

As a team, Brewton-Parker shot for 39.3% (24of-61) from the field, 21.7% (5-of-23) from three, and 64.7% (11-of-17) from the foul line. Smith led the charge for the Barons with 19 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists. Johnson scored 12 points and gathered three steals on the night followed by Damarcus Johnson Jr. with 11 points and eight rebounds. Sanders led the Barons off the glass with 10 boards and picked up three steals while joining Hatcher with nine points.

Defensively, BPC produced 10 steals on the 18 turnovers from WCU. Off the glass, the Barons picked up nine boards on offense and 33 on defense.

William Carey narrowly held the edge 43-42 in overall rebounds. Brewton- Parker notched 30 points in the pain and 14 points off turnovers. The win marks the first program win over WCU in SSAC play, dating back to 2011. vs. Blue Mountain

Brewton-Parker men’s basketball hosted Blue Mountain on Saturday afternoon in Gillis Gymnasium, resuming SSAC action. The Barons (3-1, 2-0 SSAC) jumped out to a 2-0 start in conference play after battling against the Toppers (4-2, 0-2 SSAC) in a 64-59 victory.

Blue Mountain opened the scoring with a bucket at the 19:36 mark before a pair of successful free-throws from Lance Smith leveled the score moments later. Several minutes passed with unsuccessful trips down the floor for both the Toppers and Barons.

BPC took control of the lead with Jordan Johnson snagging a steal to speed down the court for a fastbreak bucket at the 15:35 mark. Both teams began sharing the lead, answering with just about every shot made.

After going down by three points with four minutes to play, Brewton-Parker answered with an 8-0 run highlighted by Kenny Colwell’s pair of treys to lead 25-20. The Toppers closed out the half with two free throws to move the score to 25-22 in favor of the Barons. Smith and Colwell led the half with six points each followed by Chance Hatcher’s 2-of-2 performance from the field for four points.

Brewton-Parker dominated off the glass, holding a 24-15 edge over Blue Mountain with Damarcus Johnson Jr. leading the way with seven boards.

The Barons came out of the break with a threepointer from Colwell to lead by six points. Blue Mountain took advantage of several missed opportunities from BPC and utilized back-to-back scores from deep to equalize the game, 28-28 with 16:45 remaining.

Brewton-Parker reclaimed the lead on converted free throws from Smith, but the Toppers responded with a pair of their own scores from the charity stripe to level the game. The Barons took advantage of a foul and a technical foul from the Toppers as Smith boosted BPC’s lead to four points after converting fourstraight shots from the foul line.

After three more free throws from the Barons and a fastbreak score from Smith, Brewton-Parker led Blue Mountain 39-30 with 12:54 remaining. BMCU managed to pull the game back to a two-possession score with 10:55 left on the clock before knocking the deficit down to just three points moments later.

The Toppers eventually chipped the deficit away to just one point with a big three at the 8:13 mark and battled to level the score nearly two minutes later to make the score, 4646. Blue Mountain finally cracked through to capture the lead with a trey and a pair of free throws to lead 51-47 with less than five minutes remaining.

A big three-pointer from Smith at the 4:02 mark sparked a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to give BPC a 59-53 lead. Back-to-back buckets from BMCU brought the deficit down to just two points. Brewton-Parker took advantage of desperation from Blue Mountain, scoring five final points from the foul line to secure the 64-59 win.

BPC shot for 30.4% (17-of-56) from the field, 19.2% (5-of-26) from three, and 78.2% (25-of-32) from the foul line. Smith led the way with 21 points, five rebounds, and four steals. He went 12-of-14 from the foul line and 4-of-8 from the field.

Colwell netted 11 points followed by Hatcher shooting 4-of-4 from the field and 2-of-2 from the charity stripe for 10 points. Johnson Jr. led the rebounding efforts with nine followed by Grant Sanders with eight.

Off the glass, Brewton- Parker held a convincing 45-31 edge. Defensively, the Barons gathered 11 steals with BMCU giving away 19 turnovers.

BPC produced 16 points off turnovers and scored 22 second-chance points. The bench produced 24 points for the Barons. Saturday’s win marks the Barons’ first 2-0 start to SSAC play since the 2015-16 season.

Brewton-Parker travels to Daytona Beach, FL, to take on NCAA DII Embry- Riddle (Fla.) for an exhibition contest at 7 p.m. ET.