Hawks close December with win at Belhaven

JACKSON, Miss. – The Huntingdon men's basketball team started strong and held off a late push to beat Belhaven 88-83 on Monday.

Leading 81-77, Huntingdon sealed the win by hitting 7-of-8 free throws in the final 1:42 of the game. Two free throws by Damien Madison put the Hawks ahead by six before Belhaven answered with a 3-pointer to make it an 83-80 game with 1:29 remaining.

Ceaunte Zachery made two free throws to make it a five-point game with 1:07 on the clock and hit two more free throws with 37 seconds left to make it 87-80. James Harris made 1-of-2 free throws to make it an eight-point game before Belhaven cut it to five points with a 3 in the final 10 seconds.

Huntingdon led for almost the entire game, scoring 50 points in the first half and building as much as a 12-point lead, 48-36, before halftime. Leading 50-43 at the start of the second half, the Hawks built another 12-point lead, 57-45, in the first two minutes of the second half.

But from there, Belhaven began to chip away at the Hawks' lead. Huntingdon led for the remainder of the game, but the Hawks had to hold off the Blazers in the final minutes.

Madison, Zachery and Harris combined for 55 points to lead the Hawks.

Madison had 21 points, was 6-for-13 from the field, 3-for-6 from 3-point range and 6-for-7 from the free-throw line. Zachery had 21 points, was 6-for-11 from the field and 8-for-9 from the free-throw line.

Harris finished with 13 points, six assists and seven rebounds. Charvez' Hobson had seven rebounds and five assists and Caleb Toney had six rebounds.

Records: Huntingdon (5-6); Belhaven (3-6)

Coming Up: Huntingdon hosts Maryville on Saturday at 4 p.m.