Wildcats drop tight battle at Belhaven

JACKSON, Miss. – The Louisiana College men’s basketball team held a ten-point lead in the second half, but saw Belhaven battle back for a dual to the buzzer as the Wildcats fell to the Blazers 87-84 Wednesday night at Charles R. Rugg Arena.

It was the Blazers who had the hot hand early, riding three-point shooting to an early nine-point lead at 17-8 less than five minutes into the game. But out of the game’s first media timeout, the game turned into Louisiana College’s favor as a K.D. Wallace lay-up sent the Wildcats off on a 22-4 run to open up a nine-point lead of their own as Jaylen Rhone sank a three-point shot to make it 30-21 LC with less than nine minutes left before halftime, and maintained the lead to the locker room, leading 41-36 at the break.

After several minutes of back-and-forth play, the Wildcats threatened to pull away as the clock ticked towards the midway point of the second half. With just more than 15 minutes left in the game, Kae’ron Baker hit a right corner three-pointer and was fouled. He converted the free throw following the first media timeout of the second half for a four-point play. After KJ Bilbo blocked a shot on the ensuing Belhaven possession, Baker got out on the fast break for a transition dunk to make it 62-52 with just more than 14 minutes left in the game.

However, Belhaven responded with a run of their own 11-2 push to cut the LC lead to just a single point with more than 11 minutes left, setting up for the furious race to the final buzzer as neither team led by more than six points for the remainder of the contest. A baseline jumper by Kae’ron Baker with 2:45 left gave the Wildcats a three-point lead, but the Blazers hit a triple to tie the game. Baker got to the rim on LC’s next possession for a lay-up and another Wildcat lead, but that would be LC’s final points as Belhaven scored the game’s final five points to take the win.

Jr. G Kae’ron Baker led the Wildcats with 20 points and five assists. Sr. G Jaylen Rhone hit four three-pointers to finish with 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Sr. G Denzel Austin also hit four three-pointers on his way to 14 points, four rebounds and two assists. So. F K.D. Wallace was five of seven from the field for 12 points to round out the leading scorers for LC.

Louisiana College finished the game hitting 43.7% from the field, with 11 of their 31 made shots in the contest coming from above the three-point arc.

The Wildcats (10-8, 4-5 ASC) get a chance at revenge against the Blazers (7-10, 3-4 ASC) in just three days as the two teams meet up in the return game on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off of Saturday’s game is scheduled for 3:00 P.M. at H.O. West Fieldhouse.