COCHRAN, Ga. – Faulkner refused to let losing become a habit Saturday as it bounced back from a Friday night conference loss to down Middle Georgia 87-82. The No. 7 ranked Eagles, who have not suffered consecutive losses since Feb. 16, 2019, did not trail after the 16:50 mark in the first half Saturday.

The affair proved much different than the first half of the weekend series which saw the lead change 22 times less than 24 hours earlier. Faulkner wrested the lead away from Middle Georgia at the 16:50 mark with an Austin Rogers three that put the Eagles up 9-8. Faulkner ran the advantage to double digits on a pair of Derek Murphy free throws with 10:24 left until half. C.J. Williamson knocked down a three at the 7:34 mark to move the lead to 11 before hitting a pair of free throws to slide it to 13. C.J. Hines and Jordan Hamlette made consecutive triples to put Faulkner up by 18 with 5:36 left in the frame.

Middle Georgia then went on a 17-8 run to cut the deficit to nine before Rogers made a free throw to leave Faulkner up 49-39 at half. The Knights kept all of the momentum after halftime as Scott Moe's team scored the first 10 points of the second to tie the game at 49 with 16:32 remaining in the contest.

After a Scott Sanderson timeout, Murphy made a three with 16:10 left to put the Eagles up for good. Faulkner ran the lead as high as 11 on a Williamson and-1 sequence with 7:39 to play. Undaunted, Middle worked the deficit all the way back down to three on a Jahwan Smith shot with 3:50 on the clock. Hamlette then knocked down a free throw before a Williamson bucket 16 second later to stretch the lead back to six.

Middle made one more run as Tristan Harper and Juwan Johnson outscored Faulkner 7-2 to narrow the gap to one point with only 30 seconds remaining in the game. Hines answered the bell for the Eagles, making all four of his free throw attempts down the stretch to ice the game and pace his team with 20 points. He also grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Eagles in that category.

Williamson added 19 points and four rebounds. Hamlette had 13 points while Murphy scored 12 and Sanderson finished with 10.

Harper led Middle Georgia with 24 points and five rebounds. Jordan Willis scored 19 points and grabbed seven boards. Johnson finished with 13 points while Passius had 11.
Faulkner (17-2, 8-1 SSAC) returns home Tuesday to host Dalton State at 7 p.m.