Friday, February 06, 2009

BUIES CREEK, N.C. - Belmont head coach Rick Byrd has been preaching to his team about playing for an entire 40 minutes. Well, they did Friday night in the Carolinas. The Bruins rallied from a 21-point second half deficit to defeat Campbell, 87-84.

Belmont shot a frigid 8-for-31 from the field in the first half in trailing 37-22 at halftime.

The deficit grew to as many as 21 points in the second half on a three-pointer by Amir Celestin, which gave the host Camels a 51-30 edge with 15:25 to go.

But behind the inspired play of freshman Mick Hedgepeth (Crossville, Ala.), Belmont slowly worked itself back into the game.

However, the cold shooting persisted - the Bruins missed 22 of their first 24 three-point attempts - and Campbell maintained a solid working margin.

A conventional three-point play from Matt Gwynne gave the Camels a seemingly insurmountable 75-57 lead with 3:27 to go.

But behind torrid long distance shooting down the stretch, exemplary play from senior Alex Renfroe (Hermitage, Tenn.) and several Campbell missed free throws, the Bruins chipped away.

The miraculous swing was complete when senior Matthew Dotson (Centerville, Tenn.) sank a baseline three-pointer with 21 seconds left to give Belmont an 85-84 lead.

After a Campbell miss, senior Andy Wicke (Hendersonville, Tenn.) made two free throws to extend the lead to three.