Men's Basketball Gets Big First Win

By Bryant Marks

LOUISBURG, NC -- The men's basketball team of Richard Bland College won their first game of the 2019-20 season on Saturday after beating a tough Louisburg team in a close contest.

RBC now sits at .500 on the season with a 1-1 record.  The team next plays in first game of the year at Statesmen Hall, Monday, November 4, at 7 pm.  The game will be against Region X member, Wake Tech Community College.

The team opened up their second game of the season facing off against regional rivals, Louisburg College.  The teams looked to be evenly matched in the first half and most of the second half as the score remained very close.  Basket for basket was traded by the Statesmen and Hurricanes and neither team could gain an edge.  That is until the Statesmen found their groove on the defensive end securing valuable stops which led to points on the other end.  The team controlled the tempo and boards as they grabbed rebound after rebound until the end of the contest.  That late-game surge would prove to be the turning point in the contest as RBC took the game and won 78-69.

Bland had five players in double-digits Saturday.  Corbin Slayton led the team with 21 points while Zaiyen Chapman, Antonio Puaauli-Pelham, Savion Helm, and Darius Jones each scored 11 points.