MOUNT VERNON, Ga. – With a rowdy crowd and a loud Gillis Gymnasium, the Brewton-Parker men’s basketball program provided some electricity to the Mount Vernon area with a big-time win over No. 22-ranked Loyola (La.) on Thursday Night. 

The Barons (5-14, 3-8 SSAC) picked up a statement victory over the Wolf Pack (15-3, 10-1 SSAC) at home in a 67-63 win, giving the visitors their first conference loss of the season.   

How It Happened | 1st Half 

Jeffery Huff Jr. kicked things off with an and-one opportunity, converting the chance into the Barons’ first three points of the game. 

Brewton-Parker took the next few minutes to go on an 11-4 run to lead by 10 points with 12:07 on the clock. 

The Barons continued to create a gap between them and the Wolf Pack, pulling away to a 25-7 lead with five minutes remaining in the half. 

Loyola fought their way back from a double-digit deficit to a 30-21 ballgame at the break by outscoring Brewton-Parker 14-5 in the final minutes of the half. 

Huff Jr. highlighted the Barons’ first-half efforts with 14 points while shooting 6-of-10 from the floor followed by 12 points from Damarcus Johnson Jr. 

Johnson Jr. was a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor and shot 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. 

Defensively, Johnson Jr. and Grant Sanders notched two blocks each in the half. 

How It Happened | 2nd Half 

The Barons came out flying in the second half, opening things with an alley-oop from Sanders with the help of Huff Jr. 

Sanders’ slam was the first of an 11-2 start in the opening three minutes of play, giving BPC a 41-23 lead. 

Loyola would not go without punching back, going on a 9-2 run over the following three minutes to chip away at their deficit. 

However, the Barons answered with a 7-3 run within the next few minutes to pull out to a 50-35 lead with nine minutes left to play. 

After the 5:57 mark, Loyola began to chip at the Barons’ lead, moving into a single-digit deficit for the first time in the half with five minutes to play. 

Brewton-Parker managed to hold on, pulling back out to a 14-point lead at the 2:40 mark before the Wolf Pack clawed their way back into the game down the stretch. 

With two and a half minutes to play, Loyola scored 10 unanswered points to knock the lead to 63-59 with just over 45 seconds remaining. 

The Barons relied on Smith to go 4-of-6 from the charity stripe to seal the victory in the final moments as Loyola could only find four points in the final 30 seconds of action. 

Smith surged in the second half with 15, producing 11 points from the foul line. 

Aaron Udell shot 4-of-8 from the stripe and 3-of-6 from the floor for 12 points. 

Despite being outscored 42-37 in the half, BPC had enough gas left in the tank to drive the 67-63 victory home. 

Inside The Statistics 

As a team, BPC leveled for their best shooting performance of the season with 50% from the field (20-of-40) while being held for the lowest number of attempts in a game during this 2022-23 campaign. 

The Barons shot for 44.4% (4-of-9) from three and 67.6% (23-of-34) from the foul line. 

Huff Jr. led the way with 18pts, four assists, and three steals followed by Smith with 17. 

Both Johnson Jr. and Udell notched double figures, scoring 14 points and 12 points, respectively. 

Sanders led off the glass 11 of BPC’s 41 boards in which the Barons led 41-28 on the night. 

Other Notables 

Thursday night’s win marks the first win over Loyola since Nov. 21, 2014. 

This is the fifth time this season that the Barons have held their opponent under 65 points. 

Next Up 

Brewton-Parker returns to action on Saturday with a home contest against Mobile (Ala.) at 2 p.m. ET in Gillis Gym. (Courtesy of BPC)