Hot 2nd half fuels runaway from Millsaps

JACKSON, Miss. - Huntingdon Men's Basketball (4-4 Overall), defeated Millsaps College (1-6 Overall), 87-56.

Highlights

First Half

• The first couple of minutes of the game were dominated by defense on both sides. Millsaps eventually broke the stalemate with two free throws at the 18:00 mark of the half.
• With 12:22 remaining, Tate Goolesby made a layup to tie the game at 8-8.
• Millsaps would respond with a 5-0 run, capped off by a shot from deep with 10:46 left in the half, to take a 13-8 lead.
• At the 8:12 mark, Millsaps hit another three pointer to extend their lead to 8 as they went up 19-11.
• The Hawks would respond with a 8-0 run of their own to tie the game at 19, finished off by a Jeremy Autin three pointer with 4:53 left in the half.
• The Hawks would take their biggest lead of the half on the back of a Max Gardner three pointer with 1:26 remaining in the half, giving Huntingdon a 26-22 advantage.
• Both teams locked up their defense to close out the first half, but a jump shot from Max Gardner with three seconds left, gave the Hawks a momentum boost heading into halftime up 28-24.  

Second Half

• The Hawks came out of the gate in the second half ready to play, as they created a couple of turnovers and easy baskets to ignite a 6-0 run. The Hawks extended their lead to 10 as they led 34-24 with 17:31 left in the game.
• With 17:02 remaining, Millsaps would respond with a three pointer to cut the lead to five as they were only down 34-29.
• The Hawks once again put the pressure on Millsaps, by going on another 10-0 run, giving them a 44-29 lead. This was capped off by Marcus Townsend's three pointer with 14:29 left.
• The combined shooting effort of Myles Murphy, BJ Brown, and Jaylen Washington culminated as they helped extend the lead to 20 at the 11:39 mark, which was capped off by a Jaylen Washington jumper that made the score 54-34.
• With 7:56 remaining in the game, Millsaps would score on back to back trips, to cut the deficit down to 62-43.
• At the 3:38 mark in the second half, Blu Crawford would make a basket to put the Hawks up 77-52.
• With 1:15 left, Myles Johnson hit a shot from deep that put the Hawks up 82-54.
• Huntingdon closed out the game with stops on defense and strong three point shooting, exemplified by Johnathon Page hitting a three pointer with 25 seconds remaining in the game to close it out for the Hawks, with a final score of 87-56.

Key Notes

• Huntingdon shot 43% from the field, while hitting on 39% of their three pointers, meanwhile Millsaps shot 33% from the field, and they shot 20% from deep
• In the second half the Hawks shot 50% from the field and 46% from 3 pt land.
• The Hawks shot 83% from the free throw line, while the Majors drilled 60% of their shots from the line.
• The Hawks outrebounded the Majors 50-34. 
• The Huntingdon bench helped score 47 points, while Millsaps had 23 points contributed from their bench players.
• There were 10 lead changes and 10 ties between the teams.

Hawk top performers:

#2 Max Gardner- 15 pts, 8 reb, 5 ast, 3 steals.

#4 BJ Brown- 12 pts,6 ast, 2 steals, 2 reb. 

#34 Randall Davis- 8 pts, 9 reb, 1 block.

#32 Jeremy Autin- 9 pts, 2 reb.

#42 Blu Crawford – 8 pts, 6 reb. 

The Hawks are back at it on the road against Rhodes College on December 3rd. Tip off is set for 3 PM CST.