STATESMEN TOPPLE GUILFORD TECH

PETERSBURG, Va. – The Richard Bland men's basketball team extended its home game win-streak to eight after defeating Guilford Tech, 97-79 on Saturday afternoon. The Statesmen improve to 19-3 overall and 11-2 in Region X while the Titans drop to 9-13 overall and 3-10 in the league.

Three players reached double-double digits in scoring and rebounding for the Statesmen, including sophomore Tavon Mealy (Richmond, VA) who netted 26 points and 12 rebounds, following sophomore Avery Ugba (Silver Springs, MD) who charted 15 points and 11 rebounds and Melvin Gregory (Weems, VA) who added 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Although the Statesmen jumped on board first, the Titans took momentum early in the game as they surged an 11-6 lead at the 15:55 mark.

The contest became tied at 12 apiece when Gregory scored a good jumper with under 13 minutes remaining in the half.

From there, the Statesmen would go on a 6-2 run but the Titans were able to orchestrate a couple of runs themselves to cut the deficit to one, 40-39 going into intermission.

Guilford Tech came out of the halftime break with a valiant effort to gain control of the momentum. Sean Gribble scored to put the Titans up by one after 49 seconds of play in the second half.

An 8-0 run would snatch back the momentum and lead for the Statesmen as they stretched its lead to 20 points with under five minutes left in the game as the Titans were unable to recover from the deficit and dropped the 97-79 decision.

The Statesmen outscored the Titans 52-28 in the paint and bench points, 35-17.

Richard Bland returns to Statesman Hall on Monday, Feb. 2 when they host Vance-Granville in a Region X match-up. The contest is set to begin at 7 p.m.

For more information on RBC men's basketball, please visit www.rbcathletics.com.

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