BLUE MOUNTAIN, Miss. - Faulkner's defense held the Toppers to just 16 first half points and held off a late charge from BMCU Thursday to ring in the New Year with a 79-72 win in SSAC play.
The Eagles showed no signs of rust early on after a 13-day layoff for the holidays, jumping to a 14-4 lead in the first six minutes with seven from
Jordyn Turner-Durley. BMCU got a couple of buckets to make it a five point game, but Faulkner went on an 11-0 run over the next four minutes to balloon the lead out of reach for the first half. Faulkner put a lid on the BMCU rim over the final six minutes, allowing just one layup to go and re-entered the locker room with a 39-16 lead. The 16 points are the least points scored by an opponent in a half since January 7, 2016 against, coincidentally, Blue Mountain. In the half, BMCU shot just 7-27 and did not earn a trip to the free throw line.
Faulkner consistently kept the lead around 25 all the way through 11:32 to go, but the Toppers pulled a 16-2 run over 5:37 to make the lead just 11.
Kamal Green II hit a three and Turner-Durley a layup to stop the bleeding and allow the Eagles to coast to the win as the Toppers scored some late buckets to make the score closer than the game actually was with 10 threes in the second half.
Turner-Durley scored a season-high 22 to pace the Eagles. Green added 14 and
Gabriel Rivera 12.
Levi White and
Francois-Dony Baba had 10 each.
KJ Rogers and
Jerome Thomas paced a balanced rebounding effort with six each with Thomas grabbing four on the offensive end. Rogers had five assists.
The Eagles outrebounded the Toppers 39-23 with a 12-4 edge on the offensive glass. The bench outscored the hosts 27-1 with the team controlling the paint scoring 36-18.
The Eagles are on a five game win streak and improved to 10-4 on the year with a 4-1 mark in conference.
Faulkner welcomes the No. 2 team in the NAIA, the Freed-Hardeman Lions Saturday at 2 p.m. seeking to avenge a Nov. 8 loss in Henderson.
