CONWAY, Ark. - Senior Percy Lemle (Carson, Calif.) came within four points of his career-high to lead the Bellevue University basketball team to a 68-63 Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference victory over home-standing Central Baptist College on Saturday evening.
Bellevue improves to 18-3 (4-1 MCAC) with their fourth-straight victory while the loss drops Central Baptist to 6-11 (2-3 MCAC) on the year.
Lemle paced the Bruins with 30 points while adding three rebounds and an assist. The combo guard hit on 10 of his 17 attempts from the field and sank 10 of his 14 tried from the free-throw line. As a team, BU hit on 66.7 percent of their shots from the charity stripe (24-36).
Trailing 28-26 at the 1:45 mark before halftime, Bellevue scored seven of the final nine points of the half to claim a 33-30 edge before intermission on a free throw by junior Ian Randolph (Mt. Vernon, Ill.) with just three seconds until the break.
Bellevue built their advantage to eight at the 8:28 mark of the second half on a bucket by Lemle following a Mustang turnover.
Central Baptist pulled within one at the 2:57 mark on a lay-up by Kevin Daniels Jr.
The Bruins out-scored the Mustangs 13-9 from that point to hold off any thoughts of a late rally by Central Baptist.
Daniels Jr. led Central Baptist with 13 points while LaShawn Hamilton (12 points) and Bryan Tardy (11 points) both reached double figures for the Mustangs.
Junior Taylor Young (Hawthorne, Calif.) aided the offensive effort with 12 points and a team-high four assists while junior Pogos Trunyan (Sacramento, Calif.) scored 11 points and handed out one helper.
Senior Dimitri Chonis (Tucson, Ariz.) added eight points and a team-best nine rebounds. Central Baptist held a 41-36 edge on the glass but couldn't convert any second chance points.
The Bruins shot just 37.7 percent from the field, marking the second time this season that BU has claimed a victory despite shooting under 40 percent from the field. They are now 2-2 on the year when shooting under 40 percent from the field.
Bellevue will return to the court on Tuesday, Jan. 27 with a 7:00 p.m. exhibition tilt at Grace College before resuming the regular season with a 7:30 p.m. match-up at Oklahoma Wesleyan University.
