BOX SCORE
JACKSON – Senior guard
Blake Martinez scored all of his game-high 18 points in the second half and Millsaps took advantage of a 49-26 rebound advantage to win its fourth consecutive game at the Hangar Dome Monday night over the University of Dallas, 65-51.
For a second straight night, the Majors rallied from a three-point halftime deficit to come away with a win, this time using a dominating performance on the boards.
Millsaps (6-7) opened up a 10-point lead midway through the game's opening half, 20-10, getting six straight points from freshman
Quinn Lemieux to open the game and taking advantage of six offensive rebounds that led to six second chance points.
The University of Dallas (6-8) however rallied back from an early deficit with a 20-7 run over the final 10:23, using a barrage of 3-pointers from Barrett Brown, Paul Streett and Jim Norton to take a 30-27 lead into intermission.
The Crusaders stretched their lead to six early in the second half, 39-33, before Martinez and the Majors caught fire. Held scoreless the opening 27:42 of the game, Martinez rattled in a jumper at the 12:18 mark and followed with back-to-back 3s off assists from
Jairus Browning and
Cameron Varnado to give Millsaps a 44-41 lead and cap an 11-2 run.
Millsaps backed a big run with another, taking a 55-44 lead with 5:18 to play after an 11-3 spurt off two more Martinez 3s and a tough
Chris Ingle layup and free throw. Dallas would score five unanswered to cut the lead to 55-49, but wouldn't get any closer the rest of the way as the Majors capitalized on a combined 8-of-10 free throws down the stretch for a second straight night.
Behind Martinez's game-high 18, Lemieux scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds and
LV Sumler added seven points and six rebounds off the bench.
Tim White also scored his first collegiate bucket in 3 minutes off the bench, hitting a jumper from the wing.
Dallas was led by Norton with 13 points and Peter Popovich with 10 points.
Millsaps will step back into conference play this weekend, welcoming Centre College and DePauw University to the Hangar Dome on Jan. 15 and 17.