HATTIESBURG, Miss. - A big first half run was enough for the Eagles despite an early second half charge from the Crusaders as Faulkner picked up its 15th win of the season 87-73 on the road in SSAC action Saturday.
Tied at 20 in the first half, a
Trace Hill bucket at 9:05 started a 23-8 run featuring 11 points from
Jeffrey Selden who knocked down three triples and 10 from
Derek Murphy who added a pair of deep balls. Faulkner carried a comfortable 43-31 lead into halftime.
William Carey answered back out of the locker room with a 14-4 run with six a piece from Emile Kazeneza and Willie Moody to trim the lead to 49-45, but a 13-3 burst with eight points from
C.J. Hines gave Faulkner a 62-48 lead with 10:54 to play and the lead was more than sufficient for a sixth straight win over William Carey, a team who prior to the current Faulkner streak, had won eight of the previous 10 meetings.
Early in the game,
Trace Hill eclipsed the 1,200 point mark in his career becoming just the 13th Eagle to surpass that total since the program's inception in 1962. Hill surpassed Jon Uriarte's to sit 12th all-time and just 73 points behind Charles Russell for 11th and 90 points from the top 10.
Derek Murphy dropped a game high 26 for his seventh double-figure outing and fourth game with 20 or more in the last eight games.
C.J. Hines finished with 18 points and sits 14th in program history for points scored. Hines led the team with eight rebounds. He along with Murphy and Hill ended with five assists as well.
Faulkner knocked down 16 of its 18 free throw attempts while connecting on 15 deep balls at a 42.9 percent clip en route to never trailing in the game.
The Eagles sit at 15-3 overall and 7-3 in SSAC play halfway through the league slate. Faulkner sits one game ahead of Life and Stillman who are 6-4. The Eagles welcome the Running Eagles to Tine Davis Gymnasium in search of avenging one of its losses Thursday night at 7:30.
