NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Talladega College men's basketball team dropped a close one 58-51 to Tougaloo College this afternoon in HBCUAC action. Talladega is now 8-5 on the season and 2-3 in the conference while the Bulldogs are 7-4 and moved to 3-1 in the HBCUAC.

Both teams were tied at eight four minutes into the contest, but a Bulldog three a minute later broke the tie to make it 11-8 and then hit a jumper to go up, 13-8. Talladega's Malachi Chavis cut the lead to three off a jumper at 13:24. Tougaloo strung together a 12-6 run to push its lead to 25-14 with over eight minutes left in the half.  The Tornadoes attempted to climb back as they cut the difference to six to trail 30-24 with a little over four minutes to go. The Bulldogs were able to push its lead to 39-29 heading into halftime.

Derek Burditt started the scoring for Talladega in the second half as he hit a jumper to get the difference back to single digits. His jumper sparked a Tornadoes 6-0 run to give them a 45-39 lead—the team's first lead of the contest.  The Bulldogs wasted no time retaking the lead as they used a 9-0 run to go up 48-45 with just under eight minutes left in the game. Talladega fought its way back to trail 54-49 with 1:32 left on the clock, but the Bulldog lead was too much to overcome as they secured a 58-51 win over the Tornadoes.

Corey Sands led Talladega in points with 16 while grabbing five rebounds. He shot 6 of 13 from the floor and finished with a team-high four 3-pointers.

Teammate Lamont Sams finished with 13 points while tallying a team-high seven boards and five assists.

Burditt tallied seven points while dishing out five assists of his own and registering three steals. Shaun Walker joined Burditt with the team led in steals with three. He also added six points and five boards in the process.

Talladega is back on the road on Monday, Dec. 16 when it takes on Dillard University at 7 p.m. CT.