MEMPHIS-Christian Brothers University junior forward  tied his career-high with 33 points as he led the Bucs to an 87-78 win over Central State Sunday afternoon in the Bucs' first home game of the season.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
• Neither team could gain any separation in a first half that saw 10 ties, 10 lead changes and no lead of more than four points.
• The Marauders (0-2) took their largest lead of the game with 13:50 remaining on a Martin Oliver fast break dunk after a Dwight Richards triple, giving them a 53-49 edge.
• Dieball sparked the Bucs' rally, making back-to-back layups to tie the game at 53, then he capped an 8-2 CBU burst with another layup that gave CBU a 57-55 lead with 8:52 remaining, and CBU would never trail again.
• After the Marauders tied the game at 57, Dieball found Brad Miller (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder HS) for a three-pointer that put the Bucs in front for good.
• A 9-2 run capped by a Luke Rudy (Cincinnati, Ohio/Oak Hills HS) layup gave the Bucs a 69-61 lead, and Rudy capped a 7-0 burst with a triple that gave the Bucs their largest lead of the game at 80-68 with 2:28 remaining. CSU never came closer than eight points in the final minutes.

KEY STATS:
• Dieball scored 33 points on 14-of-23 shooting, including 3-of-7 from three-point range, and he made 2-of-4 free throws. Dieball also set a career-high with six blocks, adding six assists, five rebounds and two steals in 33 minutes. He scored 22 points in the second half.
• Alex Trentman (Alexandria, Ky./Bishop Brossart HS) scored 11 of his 15 points in the first half, adding seven rebounds.
• Joe Laravie (Kettering, Ohio/Alter HS) scored 13 with five assists and no turnovers as he played all 40 minutes.
• Miller scored nine points with seven rebounds and six assists.
• Rudy scored eight points with three rebounds.
• The Bucs shot 50 percent (32-of-64) from the field, including 40 percent (12-of-30) from three-point range. CSU shot 49.2 percent (32-of-65) overall but just 18.8 percent (3-of-16) from beyond the arc.
• The Marauders out-rebounded CBU 37-34, including a 13-11 edge in offensive boards, but they committed 11 turnovers to the Bucs' nine.

MIKE NIENABER'S THOUGHTS:
"We finally hit a couple of shots there that were really big. Joe hit a really big three, it was similar the last four or five minutes to the other night, except the other night we were ten ahead when we did that, so it got to 20. I knew though and I told the guys, and you can talk till you're blue in the face, to convince them that this team is better than it turned out. It wound up 24, but the game was a lot closer up there. Obviously, we were out of sync a little bit, our offense was a little un-fluid. Of course when you're not making shots it makes it tougher, but the key is we started getting the ball to Adam and I think our guys got a bit confused, we talked about not throwing lobs, but they're so quick and long that if you try to throw a lob pass to Adam like when they were fronting him, there's no way with three guys converging on him that he could go get it higher than they can. That was a disaster every time we tried to do that, but there was a lot of times where, and we started doing it, where they weren't stopping us from getting the direct crisp pass in and once we started getting it they became a little hesitant because of the way we shot it. So you know who do you leave when you're guarding it? That's the way we're built to where when we throw the ball in there if you leave any of our guys it can make you pay, so I think they chose to play Adam, but once Adam settled down and just made post moves. He was upset because he got his third foul, but I told Adam it's starting with our guards not doing a good job stopping penetration. That's part of what the zone is supposed to stop that from happening, and Adam ended up fouling because of their fast break transition."

On pulling away late:
"In game 1 the key was we shot 50% from three, but that final run started with Adam making baskets under the basket. He winds up with 14 field goals and the other part that we talk about all the time, go and get those inside points and those threes will go better. Early in the game Adam was flicking threes too early in the shot clock. Again, you work the offense a bit longer and we ended up getting him the ball in the block where he can do what he did at the end of the game. He was the key in that final run, and like I said Joe made a big three when we were separating towards the end."

On the next game against Lane:
"Not a lot of home games before Christmas so we need to take advantage of the ones we got. I've heard really good things about Lane.  I've heard that they beat UT Martin in a scrimmage, I've heard they've got a guy they think is borderline pro, maybe not NBA but maybe wind up G-league or something like that, we really don't know anything. Then is it an advantage or disadvantage this is going to be their first game so they've been playing in a tournament this weekend, unlike us playing a couple games where you can have something to read or look at, so there's a lot of unknowns. In Division II there's always a senior transfer or something like that, so you just never know until you get out there and find out 5 min into the game hey, that guy's really good."

On Central State:
"I told our guys this is a very good solid D-II basketball team. I think they would be middle of the pack GSC and can compete with anyone on a given night.  1 and 30 could play for anyone in the league, and the big kid 15 is really nice third option."

WHAT'S NEXT:
The Bucs return to action Wednesday night at 7 p.m. as they host Lane.