By Brandon King
Bethune Cookman was able to bounce back from a loss in their last outing with a wire-to-wire 82-71 victory over Jackson State.
Bethune got off to an 11-4 start before the Tigers rallied back with seven consecutive points to square the game at 11 at the 14:01 mark.
B-CU built their lead to as much as 12 points on two separate occasions—35-23 on a Derrick Carter-Hoolinger Jr. dunk — and 38-26 on a Zion Harmon three-pointer with 3:37 left in the opening half.
Jackson State continued to battle back and whittled the lead down to four points on a Colzie Young three-pointer with 38 seconds left in the half.
A Ken Evans’ jumper early in the second half trimmed the Bethune lead to just 41-39. However, an 8-3 spurt by the Wildcats gave them some breathing room at 49-42 at the 17:53 mark.
An 11-0 run pushed B-CU out by 21 points at 68-47, which would be their largest lead of the game. Jackson State then went on a 14-2 run of their own to trim the lead to 70-61. The Tigers were able to draw within 73-66 on a Young three-pointer with 4:05 left in the game.
However, Jackson State was unable to further chip away that Cookman lead due to being unable to capitalize on offensive opportunities nor get key stops on the other end.
Zion Harmon led five Wildcats in double figure with 23 points and also had a team-high six assists.
Jakobi Heady added 20 points, and Derrick Carter-Hollinger put up 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Reggie Ward had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Dhason Dyson chipped in 10 points.
