[Men's Basketball] Bluefield Pulls away to oust Knights

LAURINBURG, NC - The St. Andrews University men's basketball team dropped their conference home game with the Rams of Bluefield College (Va.) 81-71 on Monday afternoon.

Bluefield ran out to a 6-point halftime lead behind a high-percentage shooting of 58.8 percent while the Knights stayed right with them and shot 57 percent to trail just 45-39 at the break.

The second half featured lower scoring with the Rams outscoring the Knights 36-32. SAU cut into Bluefield lead and trimmed it down to three early in the half, but could get no closer the rest of the way as BC remained steady even as the Knights trailed just 74-69 with 3 minutes to play. BC shot 40 percent in the second half while the Knights shot just 38 percent.

Bluefield ended up shooting 50 percent for the game while the Knights shot 47 percent overall and 54.5 percent from three (6 of 11). However SAU struggled from the line going 11 of 20. SAU outrebounded the Rams 42-29 and 15-10 on the offensive glass, but committed 11 more turnovers making the difference in the end.

SAU put four players in double-digit scoring led by freshman forward Jean Ahoume (FR/Cameroon, Africa) putting up his first double-double of his career as he scored 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting with 12 rebounds and 3 blocks.

Junior point guard Christian Lathan (JR/Fayetteville, NC) then added 13 points with 5 rebounds, and five assists while fellow guard, senior Ben Twigger (SR/Concord, NC) scored 11 points on perfect 4 of 4 shooting including 3 of 3 from behind the arc. Lathan now has 11 assists over his past two games while Twigger has scored 20 points on perfect 6 of 6 shooting from 3-point range over his past two games.

Also scoring in double digits was junior Jeremias Easterling (JR/La Plata, Argentina) as he tallied 10 points with 5 rebounds and a steal while fellow forward, freshman Darius Huff (FR/Newport News, VA), scored 9 points with 7 boards and 3 assists with a steal.  

The Knights fall to 1-7 overall and 1-6 in the conference with the loss while Bluefield improves to 7-3 overall and 4-2 in the AAC.

St. Andrews returns to action on Dec. 30 when they travel to Durham to challenge Div. I N.C. Central University (4-8) at 2:00 PM.