BELMONT, N.C. – The Converse University men's basketball team fell 102-73 on Wednesday night to Belmont Abbey College.
 
Freshman center Earl Burgess III (Spartanburg, S.C.) stole the ball on the Crusaders opening possession and passed ahead to Sigurd Lorange (Trondheim, Norway) for the Valkyries first three-pointer of the game. Moments later Burgess III scored a jumper of his own and Converse held a 5-4 advantage over Belmont Abbey.
 
Jordan Warlick (Irmo, S.C.) ended a seven-minute scoring drought for the Valkyries. A 19-0 run by Belmont Abbey forced the Valkyries to play catchup for the remainder of the half. Converse trailed 55-22 going into the halftime break against the Crusaders.
 
Coming out of the halftime intermission, Burgess III scored the Valkyries first points of the second half. The Converse offense came out firing in the opening minutes of the second half as they scored 10-points in the first four-minutes of the period. Following the first media timeout of the second half, the Valkyries offense went on 6-0 run against the Crusaders to stay within striking distance.
 
Converse continued to shoot in the second half at a high success rate and outscored the Crusaders 51-47. Despite the Valkyries best offensive efforts they were unable to catch Belmont Abbey before time ran out.
 
Lorange led the Valkyries with 23-points in the match, Burgess III finished second on the team with 12-points and Jimmie Sanders III (Dallas, Texas) contributed 11-points in the loss. Both Burgess III and Warlick tied for the team lead with six rebounds, while Burgess III also led the team with a trio of assists and a trio of steals against the Crusaders.  
 
Next Up:
The Valkyries will travel to Lees-McRae on Saturday afternoon, tip-off is slated for a 2:00 p.m. start time.  
 
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