MEMPHIS-Behind the first career triple-double from junior forward Adam Dieball (Cincinnati, Ohio, Lakota East HS), the No. 12/10 Christian Brothers University Bucs overcame season-lows in field goal percentage and three-point percentage as they remained unbeaten with a 79-71 win over Harding Tuesday night at Canale Arena.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
• The Bucs (5-0) jumped out to an 8-0 run in the game's first two minutes on a Jeff Larkin (Cincinnati, Ohio/La Salle HS) jumper and back-to-back triples by Joe Laravie (Kettering, Ohio/Alter HS) and Alex Trentman (Alexandria, Ky./Bishop Brossart HS). From there, the Bucs' shooting went cold.
• Harding (0-3) answered the early run with a 12-5 burst that drew them within 13-12 on a pair of J.P. Brandon free throws with 13:57 remaining in the half.
• CBU threatened to pull away late in the first half as a quick 7-2 spurt lifted them to a 37-28 lead on a Cody Garbuzinski (Memphis, Tenn./Christian Brothers HS) three with 1:52 remaining in the half.
• The Bisons came back with a vengeance early in the second half, using an 8-0 run to take a 46-45 lead, their first of the night, on a Preston Anderson free throw with 13:16 remaining.
• The Bucs regained the lead when Larkin scored five straight on a three-pointer and two free throws to give CBU a 52-48 lead with 11:02 to play.
• Harding would battle back to tie the game twice more, at 52-all with 10:09 remaining and then at 64-all on a Brandon dunk with 3:20 to play.
• Laravie buried back-to-back triples to spark the run that put the game on ice for the Bucs. After a three-pointer by Preston Anderson brought Harding within three, the Bucs scored the game's next seven to stretch a 77-67 lead on a Trentman free throw with 17 seconds remaining, and Harding never came closer than eight in the final seconds.

KEY STATS:
• Larkin led the Bucs with 31 points, adding seven rebounds and two assists with no turnovers. He shot 11-of-26 overall, including 3-of-9 from three-point range, and he made 6-of-7 free throws.
• Laravie scored 21 with three assists, two steals and no turnovers. He shot 7-of-13 overall, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc, and he made 3-of-4 free throws.
• Dieball scored 12 points with 10 rebounds, 10 assists, two blocks and a steal for his first career triple-double. He shot 6-of-12 overall for the game.
• Trentman finished with eight points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.
• The Bucs shot 42.3 percent (30-of-71) overall, including 30 percent (9-of-30) from three-point range, both season-lows. Harding finished 50.9 percent (29-of-57) overall, including 33.3 percent (8-of-24) from beyond the arc.
• The Bucs out-rebounded Harding 37-35, including a 14-8 edge in offensive boards, and they forced 12 Bisons turnovers while committing three.

HEAD COACH MIKE NIENABER'S THOUGHTS:
"The thing this team has done, I don't think we're even close to clicking on all cylinders yet. I felt like one key thing in the second half, it's hard for Jeff to get 25, 26 good shots in a game with defenses geared up on him. He had 14 at halftime, but in the second half he did a better job of penetrating and finding people, being more of a point guard. He's a scoring guard, and I don't want him to stop looking to score. I know he hit a lot of big shots, but I think some of his assists were even bigger. I say the same thing to Adam, one of the keys for us offensively is Jeff and Adam and their decision making. Teams are throwing everything and the kitchen sink at them and there are a lot of guys around them that have proven they can make the shots when we get them set up. You'd like to get them more looks during some of those possessions in the first half where Jeff maybe forced it a bit after drawing three guys. You have Luke standing in the corner wide open, you have to try and get him the ball sometimes. They're not the worst shots, but if you can get some of these other guys wide open shots they're going to make some and it will keep them more in the flow. Several times we pulled the trigger to quick. Adam takes 2 or 3 a game from outside in the parking lot for three when I'd rather see him make the pass and then get it on the block."

On Adam's Dieball's triple double:
"I didn't realize he had a triple double. He got in the second half, he did a little more of what he does. He's 0-3 from three. I think the two he got in the second half were actually good looks. Our key is if we get it inside out, to a post man or inside off a Jeff or Adam drive creating the assist to Joe. Joe hit two big ones. It was tied when he hit the first then we got a stop and he hit a second one and suddenly we were 6 up with 4 minutes to go. Then they came back and buried one."

On improved free throw shooting tonight:
"One thing we did tonight that we haven't been consistent on the last couple years is making big free-throws down the stretch. That is not always our calling card. You' think with all our shooters we'd be a better free-throw team, but it's encouraging what happened tonight. Jeff going 6 for 7, Joe made some big ones when we were getting separation and they needed to start fouling at the end. It was way closer than an 8 point game, and those free throws are what made it comfortable."

On strong offensive rebounding:
"We talked a lot and I might need to get the phrase trademarked, but I haven't heard anyone else say this before. We talk about threebounding. When we shoot a three, if we go hard we'll get at least one out of three. When a guy shoots it he's back. I don't want the old school follow your shot, I want it almost like a free throw. I want him balanced and holding his ground then covering back. I want the other perimeter guys though, like Alex and Cody or someone that didn't get the minutes tonight Brad doing it."

On integrating Jeff Larkin back into the rotation:
"Part of the learning process playing three without Jeff and two with is me doing a better job getting comfortable with who's going to play when. It's all part of it. I think it's affecting our guys some, like Luke and Brad got good looks that they missed. I think part of what's in their mind is they know that they're not going to play as many minutes the way it is now. So when they have the open three now it feels magnified that they have to make it and they don't need to think that. They're going to have their time. Brad's going to have his nights when he's making shots like that and in those games he will play. Luke looked more like a freshman tonight, but he'll be fine. Jake only played 5 minutes, but he got a good tough basket and played 5 good minutes. It's hard. I've got a lot of guys I really like. There are three guys on the bench that need to play more minutes than I played them tonight and that's on me. We're deeper than we've been in long time. It's a good problem, but it's still a problem that has to be dealt with by the players and the coaching staff. I'm constantly talking to our assistants asking for their thoughts. I want their feedback on it. There was a lot of times tonight and Brad was in a lot of those tough minutes. He was in there on defense because they were doing a lot on the perimeter. When Adam got in foul trouble Brad was playing a lot of those big minutes."

On the zone defense:
"We switched from the pure zone to more of a true matchup. If you'll notice, when we go true matchup there's a lot of times when they have a guy that cuts from the wing to the corner and our guy just goes with him. If they don't have anyone to naturally hand off to it becomes more like a man to man. The last 14 minutes or so in the game we were basically playing a switching man defense."

"Our offense is with the idea that we have to keep our defense off the field. When we're pulling those quick shots and not making them play defense for an extra 10 seconds, when sometimes we panic, there's just little things like that. The thing with this team is we're always focused on the next game and watching the team we play."

Looking forward:
"When we came back Sunday after Trevecca and winning the game Saturday, I thought we need to watch us. We need to look at our defense and see where we're getting confused. When we come back after thanksgiving we'll be watching this game before we even think about Delta. We'll have 4 or 5 days to get ready for Delta next Thursday and have a nice little break. Hopefully we'll come back from the break and not be flat. It's great getting off to this 5-0 start, we're 12th in the country, 10th in the SID poll. Five of the next six games  before Christmas are on the road. That's thanks to the Gulf South, because three of those are conference away games. It gives us an opportunity since they're winnable games. If we go on the road and take care of business we can be sitting in a good place rolling into Christmas. If we can get those conference road games and be sitting at the top of the league with three road games in the bank that would be major."

Plans for the Break:
"I made a decision as a coach about 10 years ago, no more thanksgiving tournaments or things like that. We're going to take this time off and let our guys go home. If we had a rare opportunity to play something like in Alaska or Vegas maybe every once in a while. So we tell the guys go home be with your family and enjoy the time at home. We'll come back Sunday and get ready for Delta and Mississippi College next week."

WHAT'S NEXT:
The Bucs open GSC play Thursday night, Nov. 30, when they visit Delta State at 7:30 p.m. Their next home game is Saturday, Dec. 16, when they host Trevecca Nazarene at 3 p.m.