Brewton-Parker Barons Basketball Back In Action

Courtesy of BPC

The Brewton-Parker College men's basketball team got back into action with games against William Carey (Miss.) and No. 16-ranked Mobile (Ala.). vs. William Carey

Brewton-Parker Men’s Basketball returned to the court for the first game of the 2024 portion of the season with a battle against William Carey (Miss.) on Thursday night. The Barons (5-9, 1-5 SSAC) downed the Crusaders (9-5, 4-3 SSAC) in an 81-77 battle in Hattiesburg, Miss., to snap an eight-game skid.

The Barons started the game in a 6-2 deficit after the Crusaders hit two threes in the opening couple of minutes. Zailan Blue scored the first bucket for BPC at the 18:26 mark before Ferlin Joseph Jr. netted the second to cut the deficit down to two.

Over the next five minutes both teams locked in a back-and-forth battle, after an 11-11 stretch led by four points from Lance Smith and three from Dre Burroughs, the Crusaders had a 14-13 lead over the Barons with 13 minutes to play.

With 11:21 left in the half, the Barons took a onepoint lead with a jumper from Burroughs. BPC eventually improved to a threepoint lead after a 6-4 stretch over the next three minutes, led by Smith with four points and Damarcus Johnson Jr. with two.

William Carey responded with a 12-2 run all beyond the arc to take a 3023 lead over BPC with 6:10 left in the half. Brewton-Parker found some momentum and produced their own 12-2 run led by Smith with four points, Blue and Burroughs with three, and Ferlin Joseph Jr. with two, to take a 35-32 lead. The half ended with a 6-5 stretch in the Crusaders' favor to cut the Barons lead to 40-38 going into the half.

To start the second half, Johnson Jr. put up a layup to extend BPC’s lead to four at the 18:26 mark. William Carey tied the game back up at 42-42 with a three and a free throw with 17:12 left to play.

Both teams went into a back-and-forth battle over the next five minutes of play with a 10-10 stretch, keeping the game tied at 52-52 with 12:50 left to play. A total of five individual Barons managed to find a basket in the stretch with Domanic Betancourt getting his first field goal of the evening in the process.

To follow, Jordan Johnson put up four points, Justin Boston hit a trey, Joseph Jr. put in a jumper, and free throws made from Smith and Zsolt Boros led the Barons through an 11-10 stretch in BPC’s favor to take a narrow 63-62 lead with 7:14 left to play.

BPC moved to a fourpoint lead after a 6-3 stretch, led by a trey from Blue and free throws from Burroughs and Johnson Jr. The Crusaders took back a 71-69 lead with two of their threepointers, but Johnson tied the game back at 71-71 at the 3:15 mark.

With 2:54 left, Blue put up a trey to give the Barons a three-point lead, and Johnson increased the lead to 7671 with a pair of shots from the charity stripe. William Carey cut into the lead late trying to squeak out a comeback effort. Fortunately, the Barons were able to handle business in the final moments despite giving up a trey with a few seconds on the clock. BPC managed to secure an 81-77 victory by besting WCU 5-3 in the final 30 seconds of play.

BPC shot for 51.9 % (28-of-54) from the floor, 38.9% (7-of-18) from three, and 64.3% (18-of-28) from the foul line. Blue led the team with 19 points and three rebounds, followed by Smith who notched 15 points and three boards. Burroughs also scored 12 points and Joseph Jr. put up 10. The Barons gathered six steals on the defensive side of the ball. BPC owned the glass, outrebounding William Carey 39-36 vs. Mobile

The Brewton-Parker Men’s Basketball program continues its weekend Southern States Athletic Conference road trip with a contest at No. 16-ranked Mobile (Ala.) on Saturday afternoon. The Barons (510, 1-6 SSAC) dropped the battle against the Rams (123, 6-2 SSAC) in a 79-57 loss in Pharr Gymnasium in Mobile, Ala.

Zailan Blue and the Barons struck first within the opening 15 seconds, knocking down a shot from deep and following up with an “and-one” for a four-point play early. Mobile found their first bucket at the 19:31 mark and was followed by a tip-in basket from Damarcus Johnson Jr. to give BPC a 6-2 lead with 18:48 on the clock.

The Rams responded with a strong surge of 11 unanswered points over the next 2:51 to secure a 13-6 lead with just over 15 minutes remaining. Blue swished another trey at the 15:11 mark and was followed by a layup from Domanic Betancourt to cut the deficit down to two points.

Mobile continued to control the scoreline, owning a 13-5 stretch over the next four minutes. Blue remained at the forefront of the BPC offensive efforts, netting all five points with another three-pointer and a jumper.

Johnson Jr. eventually added to the Barons’ tally at the 7:13 mark which aided in a 9-4 stretch of scoring for BPC over the next two minutes to pull within five points, down 30-25. The Barons battled in the final few minutes, but the Rams edged out Brewton-Parker 9-6 in the final four and half minutes to lead 39-31 at the break.

Mobile opened the half with four straight points to advance back into a doubledigit edge. Another tip-in from Johnson Jr. gave Brewton- Parker’s first score of the half before the Rams followed up with four more points just moments later for a 47-33 advantage with 17:06 on the clock.

Lance Smith drove the paint and capitalized on a good “and-one” opportunity to pull the deficit to 11 points and kept it at 11 seconds later with a pair of free throws. Mobile slowly began building upon their lead, moving to a 59-40 lead at 11:04 after producing a 10-2 run.

Brewton-Parker surged with eight unanswered led by six points from Blue to cut the Mobile lead to 59-48 with 9:37 on the clock. Mobile responded with a threeminute, 8-2 run to move into a 17-point advantage with just over six minutes remaining in regulation. The Rams cruised into a 79-57 victory in the final few minutes of play, besting the Barons with a 12-7 run to seal the game shut.

BPC shot 30.8% (20of-65) from the field, 26.1% (6-of-23) from three, and 57.9% (11-of-19) from the foul line. Blue produced another solid game of scoring with 20 points to lead BPC followed by Dre Burroughs with 11. Justin Boston led BPC’s rebounding efforts with 12 boards, but the Barons lost the battle off the glass 47-40 as a team. Smith snagged a game-leading three steals with the Barons taking nine steams as a team from 16 turnovers from the Rams.