No. 9 Bulldogs stay perfect in AAC behind Hamilton's career day

BARBOURVILLE, Ky. - While results continue to get tighter, the Union men's basketball team continues to survive the body blows of its Appalachian Athletic Conference foes.

Terrin Hamilton scored a career-high 28 points, Markelo Sullivan and Anton Mozga both had double-doubles and the ninth-ranked Bulldogs held Bluefield scoreless for more than four minutes down the stretch to improve to 14-0 in the AAC with a 93-88 win Saturday.

In a chippy affair that saw multiple technical fouls, the lead changed hands nine times in a 4 minute, 7 second stretch in the second half, and the score was knotted at 86 with 4:24 to play after Markelle Turner and Elijah White traded jumpers.

But Mozga, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, answered with a jumper of his own before a Bulldog defense that had struggled for much of the day kicked into gear down. After the Mozga basket, the Rams proceeded to miss their next six shots, with a Jamal Hinkle dunk with eight seconds remaining serving as their only points the rest of the way.

A big reason Union was able to stay alive despite the defensive struggles was the dominant play of Hamilton, who scored 20 of his 28 points in the second half. He finished 6-of-8 from both the field and foul line while hitting a pair of 3-pointers over the final 20 minutes.

Sullivan stayed active all day, finishing with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Turner had 11 rebounds and six assists.

A massive, 58-30 rebounding edge proved to be the biggest difference for the Bulldogs, who overcame a minus-11 (17-6) turnover differential.

The Bulldogs, now 16-1 overall, can likely expect a similar challenge on Tuesday when they host Montreat at 7:30 p.m. Currently on a 24-game win streak against AAC teams, Union's last loss to a conference opponent was a 68-64 loss to the Cavaliers on Feb. 3 of last year.

Eight of the last 10 matchups between the two teams have been decided by single digits, including a 94-92 Union win in Montreat on Nov. 5.