Strong Second Half Lifts Blackburn Over Dubuque

CARLINVILLE, IL -- Blackburn College Men's Basketball outscored Dubuque University in the second half to lift the team to a 75-70 victory in Monday's nonconference matchup. 

The Beavers would keep the Spartans to just 12.5% shooting from the three-point line while shooting 52.9% from the field themselves. 

Leading BC was junior Darius Duff with 23 points. Senior Brody Barr added a double-double, scoring 13 points along with 10 rebounds. Junior Caleb Schaab chipped in with 12 points and junior Nick Cook posted 11. 

Cook gave the Beavers an early 4-2 lead but the Spartans answered to tie the game and continued the rest of the half on a run and took a 44-32 lead into halftime. 

Blackburn started the second half on a 9-2 run to pull within 46-43 five minutes in. DU responded and managed to keep the lead while BC continued to answer but were unable to tie it. At the 4:28 mark, Dubuque held a 63-62 lead. 

After a timeout, Duff made a layup to give the Beavers a 64-63 lead with 3:43 left. A Duff free throw followed by four from Schaab pulled Blackburn ahead 69-63, and a Cook layup with 1:25 remaining to put BC ahead 71-63 using a 9-0 run. 

Dubuque stopped the run with a basket at 1:03 and pulled within 71-68, but Duff made two more free throws with 20 seconds left. After another DU basketball, Barr sank two free throws to give Blackburn the 75-70 victory. 

The win marks the first win of the season for the Beavers while Dubuque falls to 7-4 overall. BC will now return to St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action as they head to Eureka College Saturday.