CLEVELAND, Miss. – The Delta State University men's basketball team held on in overtime to beat Blue Mountain College 87-83 on Monday. It was the first ever meeting between the two Mississippi schools. The Statesmen let a 13 point lead slip away but held on two win behind a career night for Cameron Burkett. The win moved the Statesmen back to a .500 record on the season at 4-4.

THE BASICS:
Score:  Delta State 87 | BMC 83
Records:  Statesmen 4-4 | Toppers 4-2
Series: Delta State leads 1-0
Location | Time: Walter-Sillers| 7:00 PM
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HOW IT HAPPENED

• Delta State scored first with a two quick buckets from Cameron Burkett to give a 5-0 lead.
• Blue Mountain answered right back with their own 8-0 run to take the lead.
• Burkett scored the first ten points for the Statesmen.
• The Statesmen tied it at 14-14 with 13:17 to go in the half but could not grab the lead.
• Two three pointers for Exavian Young and five straight points from Lukas Durasas gave BMC their largest lead of the first half of seven points at 34-27.
• The Statesmen went 4-10 from the free throw line in the first half to keep the deficit at four points at the halftime break.
• DSU started the second half on a 7-4 run to take the lead and force BMC to call a timeout.
• After the timeout, DSU went on a 14-2 run to take the lead out to 12 points with 11 minutes to go.
• The Toppers began to cut away at the lead and cut the lead back down to two with five minutes to go in the game at 68-66.
• The Statesmen answered with a tip in from Austin Laatsch to make it a four point game once again.
• Brandon Williams caught fire and hit three 3 point shots in the last two minutes to lead BMC with 21 points.
• Williams hit the game tying shot with three seconds left to force overtime.
• In the overtime period, DSU scored the first six points to take a 83-77 lead.
• BMC then scored four straight to make it 83-81 game with 2:40 to go in overtime.
• A jumper from Savvas Georgiadis made it 85-81 and Delta State hung on to win.

TURNING POINT

• From the 16 minute mark to the 12 minute mark DSU went on a 16-0 run and built the lead out to 13 points. BMC did not have a field goal for over five minute time span as well.

 
STAT OF THE GAME

• Delta State was 11-27 from the free throw line and was 12-25 from beyond the arc.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Keyshaun Street and Burkett scored the first 22 points for the Statesmen.
• Burkett had a career high 19 points.
• Airen Brooks had yet another double-double with 17 points and 17 rebounds. It was his third double-double of the season.
• Street had a game high 21 points. While Laatsch added 13 points and Anderson McCoy had 10.

UP NEXT

• Delta State heads to Jackson, Tennessee to take on Lane College in a rematch of a game earlier this year where the Statesmen won 76-71. The Statesmen will play Lane on Wednesday evening at JF Lane Gymnasium at 6 PM.