MEMPHIS-Christian Brothers University sophomore guard Joe Laravie (Kettering, Ohio, Alter HS) scored a career-high 31 points to lead the Bucs to a 78-70 win over Lane Wednesday night at Canale Arena.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
• The Bucs (3-0) made eight of their first nine three-pointers as they built a big early lead. After Lane (0-1) scored first, Laravie opened the Bucs' scoring with a four-point play to spark a 15-0 run. Brad Miller (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder HS) capped the run with a triple to give CBU a 15-3 lead with 15:52 remaining in the first half.
• A 9-2 burst capped by a Luke Rudy (Cincinnati, Ohio/Oak Hills HS) free throw gave the Bucs their largest lead of the night at 30-13 with 10:21 remaining in the first half.
• The Dragons used a 12-0 run to trim the CBU lead to 34-29 on a Myles Lee triple with 2:17 remaining in the first half.
• Lane used a 14-5 run to take their first lead since 3-0 on a Lucious Brown layup with 14:32 remaining.
• A 9-0 Dragons run capped by a pair of Brandon Dansoh free throws gave the visitors their largest lead of the night at 55-49 with 10:28 to play.
• The Bucs regained the lead for good with a 10-0 run sparked by two Rudy free throws and capped by an Adam Dieball (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) layup that gave CBU a 68-61 edge with 4:37 remaining. A Dieball triple extended the Bucs' lead back to 12 at 76-64 with 1:51 remaining, and Lane never came closer than eight points in the final minutes.

KEY STATS:
• Laravie scored his career-high 31 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including 8-of-10 from three-point range, and he made 3-of-4 free throws. He added three assists as he played all 40 minutes for the third straight game.
• Dieball scored 18 points with a season-high 11 assists and six rebounds. He finished 6-of-13 overall, including 2-of-5 from three-point range.
• Rudy scored 13 points with six rebounds, five steals and two blocks in 29 minutes off the bench.
• The Bucs shot 48.1 percent (25-of-52) overall, including 53.1 percent (17-of-32) from three-point range. Lane finished 41.7 percent (25-of-60) from the floor, including 39.1 percent (9-of-23) from beyond the arc.
• The Dragons out-rebounded CBU 42-29, including a 17-7 edge in offensive boards, but they committed 10 turnovers to the Bucs' nine.

COACH MIKE NIENABER'S THOUGHTS:
On the Game:
"During that stretch with Adam, I was wondering how long I could keep him out. Jake and the three he hit was just big. He's struggling a bit like a freshman, the biggest thing is he tries to play too fast and the stuff he could do in high school, it's just hard to do when you're 18 or 19 kid against 22 or 23 year old men. He does have a quick first step, he's just got to slow down and let the game come to him a bit. He stepped up and hit a 3 in the first half and then the one he hit in the second half was really big to give us 3 straight 3s by true freshmen. Luke is just playing unbelievable. He came up with a lot of big shots, with his quick release. Sometimes my first instinct is he's not open, but he gets the shot off and hit that one in front of the bench, where I thought the guy was going to close, but he hit it."

On Joe Laravie's night:
"What can we say about Joe tonight? I think one of the things that hurt us in the first half was Brad getting those two fouls. It hurt us a bit with our chemistry and what we were doing early, but for Joe to have to deal with that pressure and as physical as they were playing, to be able to step up and make that four point play. You just have to give them a ton of credit, they competed and fought to get back and that made it tough. We can tell why they're picked to win their side of the league, they're going to win a lot of games."

On the shooting percentage this season:
"It's amazing. It's almost scary because you know you're not going to maintain this level for Joe, otherwise he'll set some records for sure. We've got to shore up some other things. We got that 15-17 point lead and I felt we started playing too quick. I tell the guys, be patient, run the offense and you can get that shot late in the shot clock after making them play defense for thirty seconds. It's amazing how many of those shots go in, like the one Adam hit with two seconds on the shot clock, and the ones five seconds into the shot clock don't. They know that's something I'm not comfortable with, and maybe that's part of it, we need to get the ball in to Adam more. That stretch in the 1st half we just fall in love with the three, which we can understand when we're shooting the way we are, but we want to work from the inside out. We don't want to be coming down two passes and launching. It was a good hard fought win that looked for a while like we weren't going to get."

On the 3-0 start without Jeff Larkin:
"It's a good problem to have. I was talking to Wade our assistant coach from last year at Shorter and you know the cupboard was pretty bare when he got there and I'm cheering him up about his rebuild. Then I got to complaining about how many players we have, and realized what I was saying. It's a good problem, but it's still a problem. Trying to get the chemistry and keep people focused on what they're doing. Jeff is not the only one not playing yet though, Mitch was our seventh man much of last year and I look at these guys and say how am I going to get him in? On top of it, the way Luke is playing how many minutes can you have him on the bench? He's out there not just making shots, he's scrapping and got hit upside the head at one point, but he gets in there and battles. He's got a lot of the Cody-like characteristics. He scraps and does a lot of what Cody does defensively. Joe is just money, I was watching some of the games this summer from last season and there Joe was as a freshman knocking down these big shots. Its crazy to think about how young we've been the last two years and we're still having that conversation. Luke could have been freshman of the week last week and our guys were upset. I told the guys they're probably just tired of giving it to our guys after last season, with Joe, Brad and even Mitch getting it so many times. They're thinking just give it to someone other than CBU if it's even close."

On the upcoming game against Trevecca:
"I haven't looked at that game one second, we spent our time scouting tonight's game. This will be the first time we can do a true scouting report, because they've played 3 or 4 games. We can watch some stuff and put together a bit of a game plan. We'll go to work on that tomorrow and get ready for practice. I did notice they lost a few games up in St. Louis and think it'll be a different team. It might be nice to go into a game where it doesn't feel like the other team is pressing you nonstop because Jeff is not out there. Take the pressure of Joe and Brad a bit, but it's been good to get them that experience handling it."

About Lane:
"One of the things Lane did a great job on, everything we had about them. Now we did a great job on Ash and containing him, despite him being a warrior and getting 13 rebounds. They had a lot of guys, and the word I got talking to a couple people, their three point shot wasn't a big factor. Watching them warm up today though 9-23 from 3 is a really good night of shooting. I'll take that almost every night. They knew us going in and know we have guys that can shoot it. They stepped up and had guys make a lot of big shots."

On the team's strong three-point shooting and subpar free throw shooting:
"We know our 3s are better than free throws. It drives me nuts and is one of those things that if you talk about it just makes it worse. How can guys shoot threes like we do though and just go up to the foul line and do that? It's the one thing in basketball that's separate, it's like putting in golf. It's just a different skill and the mental part is so big."

WHAT'S NEXT:
The Bucs hit the road Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. as they visit Trevecca Nazarene. CBU's next home game is Tuesday night, when they host Harding at 7 p.m.