MEMPHIS-The Christian Brothers University Bucs survived early foul trouble to their two leading scorers and rolled to an 81-63 win over West Alabama Saturday afternoon for Homecoming.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
• The game opened with a defensive struggle, with the Bucs (14-8, 11-5 GSC) taking a 7-2 lead on three
Jeff Larkin (Cincinnati, Ohio/La Salle HS) free throws with 16:29 remaining in the first half.
• Shortly after the Tigers (9-12, 4-11) battled back to tie the game at 15, Larkin and
Adam Dieball (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) each picked up their second foul just 42 seconds apart, with two Toni Kumanovic free throws brought UWA back within three points at 24-21.
• A
Mitch Mays (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) layup sparked what grew into a 19-5 run that gave the Bucs a 43-26 lead on a
Joe Laravie (Kettering, Ohio/Alter HS) triple with 1:48 remaining in the first half.
• UWA used a 6-0 burst to pull within 50-38 on a Jake Jobling triple with 16:05 remaining, and they came as close as 11 points three times later in the second half.
• Three-pointers by
Brad Miller (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder HS) and Mays helped the Bucs pull away for good as they led by as many as 19 points in the final minutes.
KEY STATS:
• Larkin finished with a team-high 17 points to go with four rebounds.
•
Alex Trentman (Alexandria, Ky./Bishop Brossart HS) scored 15 with four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
• Miller scored 12 with four assists and no turnovers in 38 minutes.
• Dieball was held to 10 points and four rebounds as foul trouble limited him to 21 minutes.
• Mays scored nine with three assists.
• Playing in Dieball's place due to foul trouble,
Jack Hummel (St. Louis, Mo./Chaminade HS) scored six points and dished out a career-high five assists in 16 minutes.
• The Bucs shot a season-high 60.4 percent (32-of-53) from the floor, including 52.9 percent (9-of-17) from three-point range. UWA shot 53.8 percent (21-of-39) for the game, including 45.5 percent (5-of-11) from beyond the arc.
• The Tigers out-rebounded CBU 24-17, including a 4-2 edge in offensive boards. The Bucs forced 16 UWA turnovers while committing six.
HEAD COACH MIKE NIENABER'S THOUGHTS:
"The really special thing about it is what the guys off our bench did with Jeff and Adam getting in foul trouble in the first half. It was funny, Joe came up at halftime and said we were ready because yesterday in practice, I basically did not let Adam or Jeff play any live work. They're playing so many minutes I just felt like they didn't need to be out there banging during practice. So we put Cody in the middle, which we wound up playing some when Jack got in foul trouble. We basically practiced without Jeff and Adam yesterday. It turned out to be a good thing because our guys obviously did an amazing job the last part of the first half. With Jeff and Adam on the bench, we extended that lead, and all those guys played extremely well."
On his freshman class:
"You don't know from game to game which one of them might be great. Brad has become the most consistent, but Mitch and Joe are capable of just exploding. Mitch is the one, I think, that has the potential to become even more than he already is. Getting stronger will make so much difference for him. It's encouraging seeing all three of those guys doing the things they've been doing and contributing the way they are. It's one thing if those three guys are playing with Jeff and Adam. But they had to be the guys.
On Alex Trentman's game:
"Alex was struggling. We bumped him out of the starting lineup for a while, because I felt like he needed something to jump-start him. He's always been one of our best rebounders, but I felt like that was getting away, and his shot had gone away too. But he hit two big threes in the first half when we were building that lead, where the game could have gotten away from us."
WHAT'S NEXT:
The Bucs hit the road for three of their next four games, beginning Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. when they visit West Florida. Their next home game is Thursday night, Feb. 16, when they host Mississippi College at 7 p.m.
