Hawks down Birmingham-Southern in home opener

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon men's basketball team knocked off Birmingham-Southern 75-64 on Tuesday night in the Hawks' home opener.

Huntingdon (1-1) built a 15-point lead in the second half and held off a late push by the Panthers (0-2). The win was Huntingdon's second against Birmingham-Southern in the last nine meetings.

"We really needed that," Huntingdon head coach Mike Pugh said. "Birmingham-Southern is a rivalry game and we haven't beaten them a lot the past few years. We needed this confidence builder."

Leading by two points at halftime, 35-33, Huntingdon opened the second half with a 16-5 run and built a 13-point lead. Birmingham-Southern rallied and pulled within six points twice before the Hawks pulled ahead to a 15-point lead. A layup by Raheem Berry gave the Hawks a 66-51 lead with 5:41 to play.

The Panthers again cut it to six points, with 3:13 to play and 1:11 to play. But Huntingdon maintained control. Huntingdon hit 5-of-6 from the free-throw line in the final 40 seconds to close out the game. Andre Ashley hit two free throws and Brandon McLean was 3-for-4 during the final stretch.

"We played well tonight," Pugh said. "We were up by two at halftime and we built a good lead in the second half. Birmingham-Southern kept battling, but our guys did the things we needed with rebounds and free throws.

"This group is still learning each other and how to play together, but we're figuring some things out. We made a lot of improvement from our first game to this game and we're going to try to keep improving each game."

Berry led the Hawks with 19 points and pulled down six rebounds. R.J. Jones added 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists, Ashley followed with 15 points and seven rebounds and Jerrod Pettus finished with 12 points, six rebounds and five assists. McLean had a team-high eight rebounds to go with six points.

Huntingdon travels to Berry on Saturday for a 2 p.m. game.