The Belmont Abbey men's basketball team scored the first 14 points of the game, nine coming from senior guard Jay Council, as the Crusaders were never threatened en route to a 92-65 win at Lees-McRae this afternoon. The Crusaders improve to 19-7 overall and 12-6 in Conference Carolinas, while the Bobcats drop to 2-22 overall and 2-16 in league play.

Council scored all of his game-high 24 points in the first half on nine of 11 shooting from the field, including four of six from three-point range. He also had six rebounds in the half and finished with eight as his 24 points and eight rebounds were both game highs. Tyshawn Good added 21 points, ten in the second half, and Chris Davis netted ten as the Abbey shot 48 percent from the field. DJ Brown led Lees-McRae with 13 points as the Bobcats shot 37 percent.

The Crusaders never trailed and led by as many as 37 points, which came with eight minutes left in the game, as they opened the contest by scoring the game's first 14 points.

Lees-McRae whittled the lead down to five, but the Crusaders outscored the Bobcats 36-12 in the last 11 minutes, including a 18-0 run in the final 3:29 to claim a 54-24 lead at the break.

The second half was all Crusaders, as their lead rose to as high as 37 on two occasions, the last of which came on a Tim Mason free throw with 7:23 to play. The advantage never dropped below 27 from there as the Abbey cruised to the victory.