COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Benedict College Tigers used a 14-3 run late in the second half to pull away from Bluefield State and take a 78-74 victory on Thursday night in the Benjamin E. Mays HRC Arena.

Benedict improves to 2-0 on the season. Bluefield State falls to 1-4.

"It's a big win," said Benedict head coach Artis Maddox. "A win is a win, whether you win by two, one, or twenty."

A pair of free throws by Desmond Freeman for the Big Blue with 8:57 on the clock cut the lead to 63-62 in what had been a tight back-and-forth contest. The Tigers outscored the Big Blue 10-2 by breaking Bluefield State's full-court press and scoring layups by Tyrese Mapp, Malachi McCoy and Aboubacar Camara. A three-point play by Mapp gave Benedict its largest lead, 76-66, with 2:42 remaining.

The Big Blue answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to quickly get back into the game. Bluefield State added another basket with 37 seconds remaining to make it 76-74. Benedict put the game away at the free-throw line.

Timothy Bing Jr. led the Tigers with 16 points. Tajh Green had a double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Mapp added 13 points.

Brandon Anyanwu led Bluefield State with 22 points.

Both teams struggled from the free-throw line, with the Tigers going 14-of-25 (56 percent), while Bluefield State went 16-of-26 (61.5 percent).

"Their press, it bothered us because we didn't have the proper spacing," Maddox said. "Once we got our proper spacing and made good passes and attacked the basket, we got layups. And if we didn't have anything, we would dribble the ball back out and just ran our set."

The Tigers return to action on Saturday with a 3 p.m. contest against Tuskegee.

"We've got a lot of things to shore up," Maddox said. "We've got to make free throws, we've got to finish at the basket and make layups and dunks and we've got to take care of the ball. We had too many turnovers."