TALLADEGA, Ala. – The Talladega College men's basketball team dropped its first game of the season 73-67 to the visiting William Carey University tonight at home. The Tornadoes are now 2-1 on the season while the Crusaders moved to 3-0 on the year.
William Carey leaped out to a 4-0 lead to start the game but
Jordan Brewer hit a jumper at 17:58 to cut the lead to two. The Crusaders hit one of two foul shots to go up 5-2 but
Wilfred Campbell tied the game off a three for the Tornadoes. William Carey later responded with a three of its own to go back in front 8-5 with 15:21 left in the half. Both teams went scoreless for almost a minute and a half until the Crusaders drained another three-ball to push their lead to 11-5, but back-to-back foul shots and a pair of layups tied the game at 11 for Talladega with 12:45 left on the clock. The Tornadoes took the lead when
Shaun Walker hit a pair of free throws to make it, 13-12. Talladega after that put together a 22-9 run to push its lead to 35-21 with 1:58 to go. William Carey was able to get the difference to single-digits to trail 40-31 going into halftime.
The Crusaders struck first with a layup a minute and nine seconds in to trail by seven. Campbell pushed the Tornado lead back to double figures when he hit a three to make it a 43-33 game. Each team traded points for a little over seven minutes with Talladega holding on to a 53-50 lead at 11:16. The Crusaders tied things at 53 and then again at 55 before taking a 58-57 lead at 9:23. Talladega went back in front when Brewer laid one in to make it 59-58 and
Tre Simmons added to the lead following a pair free throws to go up 61-58 with just over seven minutes remaining. William Carey used an 11-2 run to retake the lead at 69-63 at 2:34 and held on for a 73-67 win.
Talladega was 22-of-47 (46.8%) from the floor while going 19-of-20 (95%) from the charity stripe. The Tornadoes were a perfect 8-of-8 in the second half from the line.
Brewer led the Tornadoes with 15 points while going 5-of-8 from the field and a perfect 5-of-5 from the line. Teammate Sam Lamont tallied a dozen while grabbing a team-high eight boards.
Campbell finished with 10 points, four assists, and six boards while Simmons finished with a team-high 6-of-6 from the line and four boards. All of Simmons' points came from the foul line.
Walker tallied eight points and four boards for the Tornadoes. He picked up four rebounds in the process.
Talladega is on the road next Tuesday as it takes on NCAA Division II member Miles College at 6 p.m.
