MEMPHIS-Visiting Auburn-Montgomery shot 53 percent from the field as they handed the No. 5/5 Christian Brothers University Bucs their first loss of the season, 77-68, Tuesday night at Canale Arena.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
• The Bucs (11-1, 3-1 GSC) opened the game with a 13-4 run capped by a Jeff Larkin (Cincinnati, Ohio/La Salle HS) triple with 16:39 remaining in the first half.
• AUM (6-6, 2-3) answered with a 16-2 run capped by back-to-back threes by Darrion Taylor and Michael Bryant to take a 20-15 lead with 11:22 remaining, and they never trailed again.
• CBU tied the game back up three times late in the first half, last on a Joe Laravie (Kettering, Ohio/Alter HS) jumper with 3:37 remaining in the half that tied the game at 34.
• The Warhawks closed the half with a 10-0 run to take a 44-34 lead on a Reagan Eubanks triple as the half expired.
• After AUM extended its lead to 52-41 on a Eubanks layup, the Bucs used back-to-back triples by Laravie and Alex Trentman (Alexandria, Ky./Bishop Brossart HS) to pull within 52-47 with 12:24 remaining, but the Warhawks answered with six straight and the Bucs never came closer than six again.

KEY STATS:
• Larkin scored a game-high 23 points with five assists, five rebounds and four steals as he played all 40 minutes.
• Adam Dieball (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) scored 19 points with six rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals as he played all 40 minutes.
• Laravie added 12 with four steals and two assists.
• Trentman tacked on 10 with five rebounds.
• The Bucs shot 42.6 percent (26-of-61) from the field, including 33.3 percent (11-of-33) from three-point range. AUM finished 53.6 percent (30-of-56) from the field, including 45.5 percent (10-of-22) from beyond the arc.
• The Warhawks out-rebounded CBU 39-29, including an 8-7 edge in offensive boards, but they committed 15 turnovers to the Bucs' nine.

HEAD COACH MIKE NIENABER'S THOUGHTS:
"We came out and jumped up 13-6 and had a 9 point lead early. We've done that a lot this year, we take somewhat control and then go away. We take quick shots that get the other team going. Instead of being patient and getting great shots, we settle for the first open three too early in the shot clock. We can get that three any time during a possession, but we settle for that quick one. What that also does is it puts our defense in harm's way. When we miss that quick three, we're not getting back in transition and then the other team gets on a roll. They were hot tonight and shot the ball great, but when guys start making shots and then five seconds latter we're giving them the ball back. This means that the guy that just made a shot against us has it back in his hands shooting again. Instead we need to make them play defense for twenty seconds. That's what they did to us down the stretch when they were protecting their lead. I don't think it was their game plan, but when they got the ten point lead they were able to just chew on the clock a little bit."

On the team's shot selection:
"The classic thing is Adam. He can score inside. He needs to be taking four out of every five shots around the basket, but he's taking almost half of them from around three. So many times they're quick where it doesn't even give him a chance to roll in the offence. A lot of those times he's getting those slips and clean layups, but we don't carry the offense long enough to get him into that position. He may have hit his first two or three but then the rest of the night just wasn't there."

"You have to give them credit. They played really well and played a really good game. That's the other part of the equation that we're dealing with right now is teams are going to play well against us when you have a chance to come in and beat the number five team in the country. Now we encourage it when we give them hope right out of the gate. It's a lot of craziness too like the end of the first half. We had 3 or 4 fouls to give and I'm screaming that we have those fouls to give and they drive to the basket. We had two or thee chances to reach in and foul to stop the play with five seconds left and we let the guy penetrate and kick the ball out for a wide open three. That's a shot that shouldn't even happen and so we go down ten instead of seven. It's plays like that. They hurt us some rebounding, but if we played with the same sense of urgency that we played with at the end and those offensive rebounds we probably wouldn't be as sad right now. Also when you shoot as bad as we shot tonight the other team is going to get more rebounds because there's more balls to rebound off the mistakes we make. It's hard to analyze it all right now after watching it and obviously disappointing."

Takeaways from tonight's game:
"I've learned over the years to not jump the gun and overanalyze the game once it's over. We know there's times when we're not playing with a sense of urgency or playing smart with the ball. These are things the guys are hearing over and over again. Sometimes when it comes from me I feel like it might go in one ear and out the other, especially with guys like Jeff and Adam who have been here three and four years. I think it's just one of those games that we'll sit back tomorrow and try and see if there are any glaring things. We've got to pick ourselves up and come back out tomorrow. We'll look at some film and if we see some clear things we may spend some time there, but we won't overdo it. We have to look towards West Georgia with one day to prepare. We'll get ready for West Georgia and hopefully this time Thursday night we'll be sitting here happy. Hoping to bounce back."

WHAT'S NEXT:
The Bucs return to the court Thursday night at 7 p.m. when they host West Georgia.