Inside of a packed house on Max Out Barnes night, the Covenant men's basketball team went toe-to-toe with Belhaven, who came into the game with a 11-3 record. It was Belhaven though, who made the important plays in the final minute to squeeze out a 96-92 win.
Belhaven jumped out to a 6-3 lead, using second-chance opportunities, which would become a theme of the night, to hurt Covenant. Covenant went on a 7-0 run capped off by an inside basket from Pierce Smith to move ahead four points. The Scots kept pushing forward as triples from Fisher Mitchell and Adam Deininger made it 18-12.
After scoring nine of the next 12 points, the Blazers tied the game at 21 with 8:31 left in the half.
Adam Deininger found his shot, scoring eight quick points with the help of two makes from downtown, but Belhaven answered every time as the score remained tied at 34.
Covenant went scoreless for over three minutes which allowed the Blazers to make a run and go up 44-36.
It was Covenant's turn to score off an offensive rebound as Jake Stephens delivered a put-back bucket in the final minute of the half to put the score at 46-40 going into the intermission.
Belhaven started the half out on top as it extended its lead to double-digits at 57-47 less than four minutes in. Using the 3-ball, Covenant came roaring back as a triple from Luuk Dusek followed soon after by two triples from Mitchell tied the game at 63. Neither team could draw any separation as Mitchell scored on the fast break to move ahead 72-71 at the midway point of the half.
The Scots tied their biggest lead of the night at 82-78 after it went on a 7-0 scoring run, started by a 3-pointer from Dusek.
Once again Belhaven punched back with two made free throws and a triple to take back the lead in one minute.
With the game tied and under a minute left, a long offensive rebound off a missed 3-pointer as the shot clock expired, led to Belhaven taking the lead with an inside basket. On Covenant's ensuing possession, a 3-pointer by Deininger that would have put his team ahead with 34 seconds left was waved off on an off-ball offensive foul. The Blazers made two free throws and Covenant missed the front end of a one-and-one twice in the final 30 seconds to confirm the result.
Covenant moves to 4-6 all-time against Belhaven. Mitchell scored a career-high 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting to lead Covenant's offensive attack. Logan Patterson and Deininger each scored 13 points while Kaleb Lofton posted 12 points and five assists. Smith made an impact, as usual, on defense with six blocks.
Jacob Reese for Belhaven impacted the game all night with 26 points and 18 rebounds, 10 of which were on the offensive glass.
Covenant shot 51.4% (37-72) from the field and 40% (16-40) from the 3-point line while Belhaven was 52.1% (38-73) and 35.7% (5-14) in the same categories. The Blazers owned the glass all night, outrebounding the Scots 52-30. Belhaven had a distinct advantage at the free-throw line shooting 65.2% (15-23) while Covenant was 16.7% (2-12).
Covenant travels to Piedmont on Jan. 21st for its first road conference game.