John Belin might not have had the impact that some expected when he came to Saint Peter's last season after a nice two-year career at Monroe Community College.
But, he had a big hand in the Peacocks' biggest victory of recent memory on Monday night, a 50-49 victory over Alabama in the Paradise Jam Classic played in St. Thomas of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In fact, Belin didn't have much of an impact on that game either until the final two minutes of play. And, then, the 6-foot-6 senior forward took control.
With Saint Peter's trailing 47-44 with two minutes remaining, Belin made a driving layup to cut the Crimson Tide's margin to one.
Alabama got its lead back to three with a pair of free throws before Belin collected an offensive rebound, got fouled and made one of two free throws.
Alabama then committed a turnover with 38 seconds left to play, Saint Peter's held the ball for 29 seconds and, then, Belin connected on a three-pointer with 10 seconds remaining to give the Peacocks a 50-49 lead which it held on to for the victory.
Amazingly, Belin's late-game offensive heroics ... six points in the final two minutes ... were the only six points he scored in the contest.
“Jeron (Belin) is a talented player and when he gets his feet set and gets a good look at the basket like that he can make those shots,” said Peacocks' coach John Dunne. “We are running more plays for him this year and he is going to be a big part of the offense for us.”
The victory was the program's first over a team from a BCS conference since it defeated Rutgers in 2007. Alabama plays in the Southeast Conference and it was picked to finish third in the conference's West Division. The Crimson Tide finished 17-15 last season and have eight players back from that team.
The Peacocks continue to play without standout guard Wesley Jenkins (knee injury), who is expected to return to action by early December. Without him, though, offense has been difficult to come by. Through four games Saint Peter's is only averaging 47 points per contest.
The win over Alabama was the Peacocks' first of the season after an 0-3 start.
1 comment:
John Belin? You have his name correct later in the article, it's Jeron.
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