Pilots win 5th straight with 101-80 win over Blazers
February 04, 2005
Jackson, MS---The LSUS Pilots (19-6, 10-1) traveled to Jackson, MS Thursday night to take on the Belhaven College Blazers (11-8, 5-5) in Gulf Coast Athletic Conference action. The two teams went to the locker room tied at 43-43 at the half, but the Pilots dominated the second half and went on to win by a final score of 101-80.
Danuel James opened the scoring at 19:50 of the first half, draining his first three point attempt of the game. The Pilots Fredericko Payne answered immediately with a three of his own at the 19:40 mark. The Pilots failed to score again until the 15:08 mark when Payne drilled his second three pointer to cut the Blazers lead to 12-6.
Belhaven pushed their lead to 16-6 with 13:38 remaining in the first half after James Bryant connected on two free throw attempts. On the ensuing possession, Pilots spark plug Justin Collins drove the lane and was fouled on a made field goal attempt. Collins connected on his single free throw attempt to cut the lead to 16-9, and sparked a 20-9 Pilot run. The Pilots earned their first lead of the ball game at the 7:45 mark when Freddy Hughes went coast-to-coast and for an uncontested lay-up and put the Pilots up 26-25.
Hughes capped off the first half with a made three point attempt with :20 remaining, tying the score at 43-43, and giving the Pilots the momentum going to the locker room at halftime.
The Blazers shot 46% (15-33) in the first half which included a 6-14 performance from beyond the three point line and 7-7 from the free throw line. LSUS shot 39% (12-31) which included 7-16 from three point land and 12-15 from the free throw line.
In the second half, Collins drained a three point shot from the top of the arc to put the Pilots ahead 50-47 with 17:30 remaining. The Blazers called a timeout at the 13:53 mark after Pilots Derrick Sowell ripped down 1 of his game high 4 offensive rebounds and laid in 2 of his 9 points to put LSUS ahead 60-51.
Fredericko Payne and Freddy Hughes each drilled three point attempts on back-to-back possessions to give the Pilots their largest lead of the game at 70-57 with 9:58 remaining. Tremechi Evans connected on two free throw attempts after a Belhaven timeout to make the score 70-59 and started an 11-2 Blazers run. Evans capped off the Blazers comeback draining 2-2 bonus free throw attempts and pulling the Blazers to within 4 with the score 72-68, which forced the Pilots to call a timeout and regroup.
A tremendous solo effort to get to the basket for a lay-up by Hughes out of the Pilots timeout which was followed by made three point attempts from Payne and Sowell put the Pilots out of the Blazers reach. The Pilots finished the second half on a 29-12 run which was capped off by a transition alley-oop pass from Hughes to Sowell who slammed the ball home and put an exclamation point on the Pilots 19th win of the season.
The Blazers shot 48% (28-58) from the field in the losing effort and were 9-22 from the three point line. Kirt Arceneaux led the Blazers with 19 points on 7-11 shooting. James Bryant pitched in with 14 points and a game high 9 rebounds.
Pilots leading scorer Fredericko Payne who is currently leading the country in scoring averaging 26.7 per contest collected a game high 29 points on 8-15 shooting. Justin Collins connected on 13-15 free throw attempts and collected 22 points and 5 assist while only committing a single turnover in 29 minutes of action. Freddy Hughes pitched in with 16 points, three assists, and two steals off the bench for the Pilots, while teammates Derrick Sowell and Derrick Rogers had 9 points a piece.
Travis Cash continued his tough play off the bench for the Pilots collecting a team high 7 rebounds and was 2-2 from the three point line in his 21 minutes of action. Carlon Simmons and David Walker each finished with 3 points while Derrick Hill and Abraham Saxson each had 2 points in a game which had every Pilot score 2 or more points.
The Pilots finished the game shooting 48% (29-61) from the field which included 12-28 from the three point line, and an impressive 31-38 from the free throw line.
“We are playing very well as team and are very pleased with our progress so far this season. The thing we must realize is that there is not much time to enjoy a win as we must lace’m up and get ready to play a very tough SUNO squad Saturday night at the Dock,” concluded head coach Chad McDowell after a very impressive win over the Blazers Thursday night.
The Pilots will play host to the Southern University of New Orleans Knights Saturday night at the Dock in the first of their three remaining home games of the year. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00pm.
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