MEMPHIS-The Christian Brothers University Bucs celebrated Senior Day with a 96-80 win over  North Alabama, clinching the No. 4 seed and a home quarterfinal game in next week's Gulf South Conference Tournament.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
• The Bucs (17-11, 14-8 GSC) never trailed, scoring the game's first four points. Back-to-back three-pointers by Alex Trentman (Alexandria, Ky./Bishop Brossart HS) and Adam Dieball (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) gave the Bucs a 22-14 lead with 12:34 remaining in the first half.
• North Alabama (14-14, 9-13) used an 8-2 run to close within 30-27 on two Tavaras Tolliver free throws with 7:21 remaining in the first half.
• Jeff Larkin (Cincinnati, Ohio/La Salle HS) scored seven of his game-high 32 points during a 9-2 burst to answer, giving CBU a 39-29 lead when he scored a layup with 4:19 remaining in the half.
• Brad Miller (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder HS) sank consecutive triples early in the second half to push the Bucs' lead to 59-48 with 13:25 remaining.
• The Lions exploded for a 10-0 run to answer, closing within 59-58 on a pair of Dimario Jackson free throws with 10:45 remaining.
• Again it was Larkin who answered for the Bucs, knocking down a three-pointer to stem the tide as he sparked an 8-2 burst. Later, a 15-4 run capped by an Alex Trentman (Alexandria, Ky./Bishop Brossart HS) fast break dunk gave the Bucs their largest lead of the day at 88-70 with 1:02 remaining.

KEY STATS:
• Larkin scored a season-best 32 points with seven rebounds in 34 minutes. He was 11-of-18 from the field, including 6-of-10 from three-point range.
• Miller scored 17 points with nine rebounds, seven assists and no turnovers in 38 minutes. His seven assists are a career-high, and nine rebounds matched his career-best. He finished 5-of-7 from the field, including 4-of-5 from three-point range.
• Dieball scored 13 points with nine rebounds, six assists and two blocks.
• Trentman added 12 with seven rebounds and three blocks.
• The Bucs shot 48.4 percent (30-of-62) from the field, including 46.9 percent (15-of-32) from three-point range. UNA finished 40.6 percent (28-of-69) overall, including 35.3 percent (6-of-17) from beyond the arc.
• CBU out-rebounded the Lions 41-37, but UNA held a 9-8 edge in offensive boards and forced 10 CBU turnovers while committing eight.

SENIOR DAY:
CBU recognized four seniors before the game: Ryan McArthy (graduated last May), #J.T. Moody#, Jack Hummel (St. Louis, Mo./Chaminade HS) and Charlie Oswald (Memphis, Tenn./Christian Brothers HS).

HEAD COACH MIKE NIENABER'S THOUGHTS:
"You could have fooled me on the start to finish lead thing, because it didn't feel like we led the whole game. It was a lot tougher and closer than that final score indicated, but it was good that we finally got a little separation. They're a hard team to guard, like most of the teams in the league are for us. We have trouble keeping in front of people with the athleticism. We finally did a pretty good job staying packed in there. It's a great win. We got two big ones this week that we took care of, now we've got one more that's the biggest game we've played in a long time, because it's very likely an NCAA play-in game. It's not definite that we wouldn't get in, but we'll see what happens with the regional rankings this week. I think we'll definitely go ahead of Shorter. If we're 6 and 7 like we've been and we go into that game and we beat West Florida, we're probably going to leap over them, because we tied regular season, it'll be the third match. If we win 2 out of 3, you would think we would move ahead of them and go to the six spot, which is important because the six spot is a little more upset-proof."

"West Florida has played great the second half. They started out 0-4 and we were 4-0 and we wind up tied, so that tells you how much they've won since those first four conference games. Jeff has done a great job getting that team going. In his second year, to have his team sitting there like we are, a win or two away from going to the NCAA Tournament. There is an outside chance, the way these rankings have been, that we could get five. I don't think it's ever happened in this region. It's an NCAA play-in game."

"The last two games have been close to that. We knew that we had to win these games. The Huntsville game, obviously, was an unbelievable challenge, a great win for us. But after you win a game like Huntsville, to come back and have a game like this, it's really hard to come back after a game."

On Jeff Larkin's big game:
"The great thing about this team, a lot of times with Jeff, less is more. He didn't take as many shots, didn't score as many points the other night, but he creates so much for everybody else. It was one of those kind of games for him the other night, where he ended up with 8 or 9 points but he's creating shots for Joe, for Alex. A lot of times Jeff doesn't even get the assist. He penetrates, draws the first attack, makes the pass and then there's one more pass after that. It needs to be like hockey where you can have two assists. Jeff didn't have a big night the other night, but today he gets 32. And steps up and plays unbelievable. Brad had another big game, 17. Hitting those threes early that helped build the lead. And then there's Adam and Alex. It's a fun team to coach."

"It's a great win, it's been a great run. When we were sitting there two weeks ago with four games remaining, we pretty much knew we had to win three out of four. Let's hope we've got that one more, to get to Birmingham. And if we get to Birmingham, all bets are off. I like our chances on a neutral floor. We've played very well at Samford when we've gotten there in the past."

"Being able to stay at home the first round of the playoffs, that does two things. One, obviously, you're at home and you can't beat that. The other thing is, if you're hosting a home game, if you look at it the last few years, Gulf South teams that have hosted home games and won have made the tournament. So it puts you in that NCAA position. We've got to step up one more time."

WHAT'S NEXT:
The Bucs open GSC Tournament play Tuesday night as they host No. 5 seed West Florida. Tip-off time is to be determined. The winner advances to the GSC semifinals Saturday night in Homewood, Ala., where they will face the winner between top-seeded Valdosta State and No. 8 seed North Alabama. The championship game is set for Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday's other quarterfinals feature No. 7 seed Union at No. 2 seed Alabama Huntsville and No. 6 seed Shorter at No. 3 seed Delta State.