Box Score TALLADEGA, Ala. – Faulkner (1-0) held off a late charge from Central Baptist to take a 76-65 win in the opening game of the Fresh Start Talladega College Classic Friday evening.

"It was awesome. I just love getting to compete again. Our guys are excited to get to compete. We played a really, really, really good team the first game of the years and I thought we played well," Faulkner Head Coach Scott Sanderson said.

After leading by as many as 13 in the second half, the Eagles watched a resurgent CBC squad put together an 8-0 run that culminated with a Jalen Adams three to cut it to 64-59 with 4:44 remaining in the contest.

C.J. Williamson dished off to Trace Hill 15 seconds later, setting the junior forward up for a triple of his own to stretch the Eagle lead to 67-59.

"They go on a 9-0 run and that's when trace hit that three in the corner. Garrett (Sanderson) hadn't made a shot all night because they were glued to him and he hit a big three right on top of that to get it back to 10," Scott Sanderson said. "Those games right there, we won all those games last year. For them to be able to come back and get enough stops and enough buckets to be able to ice the game away late was big for our confidence, really big."

The back-and-forth continued until the 2:45 mark when Jordan Hamlette cashed in a pair of free throws to push the advantage to 72-63. Williamson then converted back-to-back buckets to make it a 6-0 run and leave Faulkner up 76-63.

The Eagles trailed by as many as five points in the first half but took the lead for good on an Austin Rogers three off a Hamlette assist with 1:58 to play until half.

"Defensively, late in the half, we were really good. Offensively, we got the shots we wanted to get. We executed really good late in the half. We executed late in the clock to get the right shots from the right people," Scott Sanderson said.

Rogers then assisted a Williamson bucket to move the advantage to 36-33.

"I was very proud of Austin. He has played no scrimmages at all. He just got eligible yesterday. I thought he played tremendous in limited minutes," Sanderson said.
Williamson dumped in another before the break off a Garrett Sanderson dime with 38 seconds on the clock to move it to 38-34. Faulkner went to the half on a high note as Hamlette found C.J. Hines in the corner, allowing the freshman to make his first career bucket on a buzzer-beating three to set intermission advantage at 41-34.

"C.J. hit a big three at the end of the half and he's just going to be a very, very good player for us.," Sanderson said.
Faulkner shot 51 percent from the floor in the contest including 33 percent from three. The Eagles also made 19 of 26 free throw attempts. The Chargers won the rebounding battle 26-24 but turned the ball over 27 times as compared to 19 by Faulkner.

Williamson finished with 19 points and eight rebounds in the game, team highs in both categories. Hamlette notched 17 points and four assists in his Faulkner debut.
"Jordan just controls the tempo. He's a big, strong guard. He can get downhill. He's a good decision maker," Sanderson said.
Hill had 11 points, one field goal off his career high.

Faulkner has yet to lose an opener under Scott Sanderson, going 7-0 in such contests during his tenure. The Eagles play again Saturday at 2 p.m. against Missouri Baptist.