Men's Basketball Squeaks Out Exhibition Win

Photo taken by Greer Patten

Belmont men’s basketball squeezed out a 74-70 victory during Monday night’s exhibition match against Tennessee Tech.

Sophomore forward Sam Orme came on to the court with a fire inside, lighting up the first three scores of the game with the first being a three-point shot.

The forward racked up 16 points over 27 minutes on the court.

Two of Orme’s scores came from an assist by a new Bruin, graduate guard Nic McClain.

The former Daytona State Falcon totaled nine points, but had a team-high of six assists and 14 rebounds.

“We saw that he's got a lot of talent and a lot of ways that he can impact the game,” head coach Casey Alexander said. “He needs to play a little cleaner and be a little bit more efficient with scoring opportunities, but he did some great things.”

The Bruins built a 12-point lead by the end of the first half.

Orme scored first again with a tip-in layup, making it 36-22.

Turnovers became constant from the Bruin offense and the Golden Eagles found four scoring opportunities from the five turnovers made in the first seven minutes of the second half, reeling Belmont back to a four-point lead.

Belmont totaled 19 turnovers by the end of the game.

Tennessee Tech looked like the better team in the second half leading in field goal, three point and free throw percentages.

The Golden Eagles put in a good effort going back-and-forth with the Bruin offense in the last three minutes of the match, cutting the deficit to four points again, but the game would end with the Bruins scraping by with a 74-70 win.

“Tonight's a very uncharacteristic game for us on the offensive end, with more turnovers than assists, but it's the way it goes sometimes,” Alexander said.

Men’s Basketball will begin regular season play against Air Force at home Nov. 3 at 6:30 p.m.

- 

This article was written by Reece Leddy