JACKSON, Miss. – The Vikings headed to Mississippi on Saturday afternoon, as they rematched with the Blazers and came away with an 83-68 loss. 

Cameron Pope led the way for the Vikings with 16 points on 8-of-15 shooting, alongside Nile King (13 pts) and Drew Winegarden (10 pts) to round out the double-digit scoring. Mason Lawrence was also instrumental with 8 points and 7 boards. 

The first half began with Pope responding to a 3-0 run from the Blazers with two strong drives and finishes to make it a 6-4 game in favor of Belhaven with 16 minutes remaining in the first half.  

A few moments later, after a Belhaven basket, the Vikings broke a press, as Bennett Frazer dropped off a bounce pass to Nile King, who rattled the rim with a two-hand jam to cut the Blazer lead down to four with 14 and a half minutes left. The Vikings fell victim to a strong run from the Blazers, as they stretched their lead out to 12 with just over nine minutes left in the first half.  

Facing a 12-point deficit with 5:33 to go in the half, the Vikings continued to battle with a Drew Winegarden three-pointer to cut the lead to nine. With 2:56 to go, Cam Pope weaved his way through the lane and sank a reverse layup to cut the lead to 8, 31-23. Following that, the Vikings strung together some stops, which led to Nile King spinning through the lane and finding a wide-open Mason Lawrence to cut the lead to 6. Belhaven quickly responded with a 3 to extend the lead back out to 9 at halftime. 

Some solid offensive rebounding from Mason Lawrence and aggressive finishes from Cam Pope cut the Blazer lead to just five with 18 minutes to play. After a Nile King layup cut the Belhaven lead to two, the Blazers responded with a 5-0 run to quickly push their lead back out to 7 with 16 minutes left. On the ensuing Viking possession, King continued to find his footing with a three-pointer of his own to cut the lead back to 4.  

Pope and King connected in a big way, as Pope broke the Blazer press and tossed the ball up to a leaping King, who punched in his second slam of the contest to cut the lead to two. On the next possession, the Blazers banged home a three to push their lead back to five with 14 minutes left in the game. Belhaven responded to take a 60-50 lead over the Vikings with 11 minutes remaining.  

The Vikings continued to fight along, though, keeping the game within single digits, before back-to-back Canon Armstead layups cut the lead back to five with 7:20 to play. Moments later, Drew Winegarden rejoined the party, as his left-hand baseline drive led to a strong finish through contact and a converted and-one to cut the Belhaven lead to just 3, 67-64.  

Despite their valiant efforts, the Blazers pulled away late to defeat the Vikings by a final score of 83-68.  

Berry looks ahead to their second SAA game on the road against Southwestern University on January 9.