BLUE MOUNTAIN, Miss. – Faulkner held on and held off Blue Mountain Christian Saturday afternoon, notching a 72-67 SSAC road victory. The Eagles won the game at the free throw line with their final 14 points coming from the charity stripe, offsetting the fact that they did not make a shot from the floor in the final eight minutes of play.
The last field goal came at the 8:07 mark when Victor Muñoz made a jumper off a
Jayden Cooper assist to move the Faulkner advantage to 58-49. The Eagles only took five more shots from the field for the duration of the contest. From there, the parade to the line saw five different Faulkner players make 14 of 18 free throws to hold onto the lead. Faulkner hit 28 of 36 free throws in the game while also shooting 40.4 percent from the floor and winning the rebound battle 40-26.
The Eagles last trailed with 11:33 remaining in the first half after a Trae Jones jumper put the Toppers up 15-14.
T.J. Williams, who finished with eight points in six minutes of play, put his team back on top for good with a pair of back-to-back buckets. Faulkner ran the lead to nine by halftime and got it as high as 10 in the second half.
Blue Mountain Christian cut the lead to 60-58 with 5:21 remaining before Faulkner's
Jerome Thomas stepped to the line to record the first point of his collegiate career. The made free throw started a 7-0 stretch from the stripe for the Eagles that ate up 2:51 of the clock and move the lead back to nine. The Toppers were unable to get the game back to a single possession margin.
Cooper paced the Eagles with 17 points and six rebounds. Garcia finished with 15 points while Muñoz had 13 points and 14 rebounds.
Faulkner (8-6, 3-3 SSAC) returns to action Tuesday when it hosts Tennessee Southern at 5 p.m.
