[Men's Basketball] No. 4 Bellevue Holds Off Late Falcons Rally to Win 80-70

York, Neb. – After trailing by as many as 31 points in the second half, the Friends University Falcons battled all the way back within single digits, but it was too late as the No. 4-ranked Bellevue (Neb.) Bruins held on for an 80-70 win on the final day of the York Tip-Off Classic today (Oct. 28) in York, Neb.

The Bruins took command early by scoring the first 14 points of the game and led 21-3 at the 11:53 mark of the first half.

Bellevue extended the lead to 47-21 at the break before building the bulge to 58-27 with 13:21 left in the second half.

The deficit was still 23 when Atir Cherne (JR/Wichita, Kan.) scored eight points to spark a 13-2 push that brought the Falcons within 70-58 with 3:41 left.

After the Bruins extended the lead back to 14, a bucket from Cherne and a three-pointer by Jordan Murdock (JR/Wichita, Kan.) cut the lead to 74-65 and then a three-point play by Murdock made it an eight-point game with 50 seconds remaining.

But that's as close as Friends would get as the Bruins made five free throws down the stretch to close out the game.

Murdock led the Falcons (0-2) with 29 points and also pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. Murdock averaged 24.5 ppg over the two games at York this weekend.

Cherne delivered a career-high 19 points for Friends on 9-of-13 from the field.

Nick Hilton paced the Bruins (2-0) with 20 points and Blake Wilder recorded a game-high 11 boards.

Jalen Hall scored 14 with a game-high five assists and BJ Shelton added 12 points. Connor Dukes also reached double-figure scoring for Bellevue with 10 points.

As evidenced by their comeback, the Falcons heated up to shoot 60.6 percent (20-of-33) in the second half following a 27.6 percent (8-of-29) clip in the opening half.

The Falcons will now gear up for their home opener, set for Tuesday night (Oct. 31) at 8 pm vs Bacone College inside the Garvey PE Gymnasium.