December 17, 2007

JACKSON – Senior forward Rodney Rogan chipped in his third double-double of the year with 25 points and a career-high 14 rebounds and sophomore Cameron Varnado came off the bench with seven points and a career-high four assists to lead a Millsaps bench that outscored Belhaven 21-8 as the Majors topped the Blazers 75-70 Monday night.

The win for Millsaps (7-1) pushed its home win-streak out to four games to open the season, but more importantly snapped a four-game losing streak to Belhaven (8-4) to give fifth-year head coach Tim Wise his first career victory over the Blazers.

Losers of four-straight after opening the season 8-0, Belhaven looked to run away with the game from the opening tip, jumping out to a 13-2 lead off a pair of 3s and a layup from junior forward Iman Walcott who finished with a team-high 18 points for the Blazers.

Millsaps, however countered the Belhaven run with a jumper from Rogan, who started a 19-4 run for the Majors that spanned over the next 5:09, to give the home team a 21-17 lead.

The two teams traded buckets over the final 8:26 of the half and the Blazers regained the lead momentarily at 33-32, before Millsaps scored the final four points to take a 36-33 lead at intermission and never look back.

Belhaven trailed the remainder of the game and got within five points just twice, as Millsaps built its largest lead of the game at 66-53 and held off a late run that cut the gap to four to win its fourth-straight at home and build off their best eight-game start (7-1) since 2001-02.

Senior guard Lorenzo Bailey was the other Major in double figures with 15, hitting 4-of-9 shots from beyond the arc to move to within just 12 of setting a new Millsaps career record with 181. He also picked up a pair of steals in the game, giving him 128 for his career, to move into a t-fourth with Torrance Shelton (1988-91) on the all-time list.

Varnado highlighted an outstanding performance from the Millsaps bench, finishing with seven points and four assists in 16 minutes, while Edrick Montgomery added six points, six boards and Chad Songy chipped in a career-high six assists.

The Blazers had four scorers in double figures, led by Walcott with 18, Andre Taylor with 16, Korey Whiting with 15 and true freshman Phillip Holmes with 12. Holmes also grabbed a team-high eight boards to push his season average out to 6.8 per contest.

Millsaps will continue a four-game homestand in the Hangar Dome after the Christmas Holidays, hosting NAIA foe Loyola-New Orleans at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 30.