COLUMBIA, Mo. -- On a day featuring sporadic offense, the Bellevue University men's basketball team relied on a stifling defensive effort to pick up a 68-43 victory over Hannibal-LaGrange University on Saturday afternoon to close out play at the Hampton Inn Thanksgiving Classic.
Bellevue improves to 6-4, while the Trojans slide to 4-3.
HLGU and BU both started sloppily on offense, combining for 16 first-half turnovers and shooting just a hair over 40% in the first half.
The Bruins scored the first six points of the game with a pair of Justin Motley layups sandwiched around a fast-break layup from Paulo Araujo.
Hannibal-LaGrange trimmed the deficit to two points on a couple of occasions, including a Khalib Beckton layup that brought the score to 10-8. This preceded a 13-4 Bellevue run kicked off by five-straight points from Martis Johnson as the Bruin lead grew to 11 points with 5:24 to play on a Keenami Maggard jumper.
The lead hovered between seven and 11 points the remainder of the half, with the Bruins taking a nine-point lead, 29-20, into the intermission.
Jacob Staton led the Trojans with eight at the break, while Motley paced the Bruins with six in the opening 20 minutes.
After trading baskets to open the second half, HLGU cut the Bruin lead to just five. Christian Carter answered with a corner three, and Bellevue took a timeout to regroup. Johnson swiped a steal for a layup to push the lead back to 10.
A 13-3 BU run pushed the advantage to 18, 54-36, after Nick Gutierrez briefly trimmed the Bruin lead to eight.
Bellevue's lead grew to as many as 29 in the closing minutes as the Bruins took home a 25-point victory.
Carter hit all four of his three-point attempts in the second half en route to a game- and career-high 16 points. Joining him in double figures were Araujo and Johnson with 13 and 12, respectively.
Eddie Ambrose paced the Trojans with 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
Bellevue opens conference play on Saturday, Dec. 3, when they return home to host Dakota State University (2-4) at 5 p.m. at the Gordon Lozier Athletic Center.
