Box Score BLUE MOUNTAIN, Miss. - Michael France scored a season-high 38 points, including seven three-pointers, to lead the Trevecca Trojans (10-5, 2-0 TranSouth) to an 80-67 win over Blue Mountain (7-7, 0-2) Saturday afternoon at Tyler Gymnasium.


Trevecca now leads the series 8-1 with Blue Mountain and the Trojans have now won five of their last six games overall.

With Trevecca leading 17-10, Blue Mountain took a 23-22 lead behind a 13-5 run. The Trojans responded with a 10-0 run, sparked by a pair of threes by France, who scored 21 points in the first half. Trevecca held onto the lead, taking a 41-36 advantage into the break.

France opened the second half with a jumper that put the Trojans up 43-36 with 18:20 remaining. But a 6-0 run by the Toppers cut the TNU lead to just one at the 16:03 mark, 43-42. Trevecca's lead was just two points (48-46) with 12:57 remaining when the Trojans finally put some permanent separation between themselves and the Toppers. Trevecca outscored BMC 12--0 over the next four minutes and led 60-46 with 9:03 to go. France added another five points and JP Nyadaro scored four points in the run for the Trojans. Except for when Shane Butler hit a field goal with 1:41 to go cutting the Trojan lead to eight (72-64), Trevecca led by double figures for the remainder of the game. Trevecca led by as many as 15 on a couple of occasions, eventually settling for the 13-point victory.

Trevecca coach Sam Harris knows this was a big win, but considers this a key week in the race in the TranSouth standings. Harris said, "This was a good win, this is a team that is better than the team that beat us here last year. We were motivated to get the victory. We also have more work to do this week. Bethel swept us last year, breaking a long winning streak that we had over them. We'll remind the guys of that when we begin to prepare on Monday. Bethel is very good again, and then we have a terrific Cumberland team coming to our house on Saturday."

Harris continued, "I thought defensively we were good tonight, we need that every night out to win in the conference. As we focus on the next two this week, we need the same defensive effort to have a chance to win both games. I was pleased with the effort tonight and expect to see more of it next week."

The 38 points by France is the second-best effort of his career, trailing only the 43-point performance he put together last season at Martin Methodist. He also scored 36 points in a game earlier this season. The NAIA All-American hit 12-of-21 from the field, including 7-of-12 from three-point range. He was also 7-of-9 from the free throw line. France added a game-high four steals and had a block. Marquise Rudolph added 17 points while hitting 6-of-10 from the field. Rudolph had three assists and three steals. JP Nyadaro and Rudolph led the team with six rebounds apiece.

Shane Butler and Jermael Bingham each scored 15 points to lead the Toppers. Devante' Pulliam had a game-high seven rebounds for BMC. The Toppers, one of the best shooting teams in the NAIA, were held to just 39% (22-56) shooting from the field, but found the mark from three-point range hitting 9-of-22 (41%) from long range.

Trevecca topped Blue Mountain 31-30 in rebounding. Trevecca shot the ball well in every category. The Trojans shot 56% (29-52) from the floor, 50% (10-20) from three-point range, and 71% (12-17) from the free throw line.

Trevecca outscored BMC 39-31 in the second half. The Toppers outscored the Trojans 37-12 off the bench.