MEMPHIS-The Christian Brothers University Bucs never trailed in a 78-63 win over Lee Thursday night, leading by as many as 25 points as they snapped a four-game losing streak.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
• Adam Dieball (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) and Jeff Larkin (Cincinnati, Ohio/La Salle HS) provided all of the Bucs' scoring early, scoring the Bucs' first 24 points and either scoring or assisting on every CBU (14-6, 6-6 GSC) field goal for the game's first 23 minutes.
• The Bucs opened the game on a 15-5 run capped by a Dieball layup with 12:51 remaining in the half.
• After the Flames (11-8, 6-6) drew within 26-20 on a Levi Woods tip-in with 3:44 remaining in the half, the Bucs answered with a 9-2 run to take a 35-22 halftime lead as Dieball sank two free throws with 0.4 seconds remaining in the first half.
• The Bucs put the game away quickly with a 19-4 run early in the second half, pulling away to a 56-31 lead on a Joe Laravie (Kettering, Ohio/Alter HS) layup with 13:04 remaining. The Flames never came closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

KEY STATS:
• Larkin scored a game-high 22 points with three rebounds, two assists and two steals. He finished 6-of-14 overall, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc, and he was 7-of-8 at the free throw line.
• Dieball scored 19 points with eight assists and six rebounds. He finished 7-of-10 from the field, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.
• Laravie added 17 with four steals in 26 minutes, shooting 7-of-11 overall.
• Alex Trentman (Alexandria, Ky./Bishop Brossart HS) added six points with game-highs of eight rebounds and three blocks in 26 minutes.
• Mitchell Mays (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) scored seven points with two rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench.
• The Bucs shot 49.0 percent (25-of-51) from the field, including 38.1 percent (8-of-21) from three-point range. Lee finished 39.7 percent (25-of-63) overall, including 26.3 percent (5-of-19) from beyond the arc.
• Lee out-rebounded the Bucs 41-28, including a 17-4 edge in offensive boards. CBU forced 14 Flames turnovers while committing nine.

COACH MIKE NIENABER'S THOUGHTS:
On winning:
"Finally, it feels good. It was good. Obviously, we were making some shots and they started off extremely cold. I thought they got some good looks that just didn't go. I really thought we broke down defensively a couple times in that first half and were just fortunate they were 0-7 from 3 in the first half. It seemed like all of them were wide open. At least five of them were pretty good open looks that just didn't go and we were really fortunate that way.  Offensively, I thought we executed pretty well. It's a good sign for us that we only took 21 3s. We got more inside stuff and it's amazing how many backdoor looks we got against a Princeton team. It surprised me. We have a way and we talked about it in prep that we run it against a Princeton team every day in practice, against guys that know it. We have a way of just sneaking those backdoors, those non-bounce passes sometimes, where they think it's too late and then at the last second Adam makes some nice passes from the top of the key. Some of those were key baskets, and those kind of baskets are really discouraging for a defense."

On Jeff Larkin and Adam Dieball scoring the first 24 points:
"I didn't realize that they did that. I knew Jeff got off to a better start than he had in a while.  Its critical for us to have Jeff playing like he did offensively tonight. Adam now has had two or three games in a row where he's starting to look more like what we expect. He's struggled some from three this year. I think his selection has gotten better the last few games. Obviously we need that. We've said this before, you're two or three best players have got to play. This team is going to go as far as Adam and Jeff and Joe take us. Primarily, Adam and Jeff. When they're playing well we're really tough to beat. When their numbers begin to falter for whatever reason, it's really hard for us to win. You take any team in America and you can break it down like that. Its critical for us and would be great to get them going with confidence now. Hopefully get us another good one Saturday. I think the confidence factor is a big big thing for us going forward."

On Alex Trentman:
"I thought he had a really good game and blocked shots. I thought defensively he was supporting us early in the second half. He got his hand on a couple of shots around the basket. Another thing I liked, and finally saw, was when Alex scored in the low post. That's something he's been doing across his career and for some reason this year just hasn't been as effective. He got that guy kind of nailed down there and moved a bit left and then back right and kissed it off the glass, we need more of that from him."

On Mitchell Mays:
"He's a very talented player that is capable. One of the things I told Alex when we had the 15-20 point lead was if it starts getting close we'll get you back in there because of how well he was playing defensively, but I really wanted mitch to get those minutes and get that time. It was great because when he hit the 3 from the corner they had made a run. They had cut it from around a 25 to 14 point lead. It was getting to close for comfort and that was a big three that he hit. Another guy I thought played well was Jake. I felt he gave us some good minutes in there playing for Adam. Jake got in there and contested. I think he blocked a shot and then turned around and got a rebound, which you don't see a lot. I think he does a really good job on D. I was tickled when Jeff created that 3 from him that Jake has been working on and really thought it was going to fall for him. Jake's offense is going to come on with experience.  He's a freshman that just hasn't completely gotten comfortable with the offense yet. You can tell he's just thinking a lot when he's out there. It's hard not to when we're running this stuff and that's a reason we like to red-shirt people.  One of the more disappointing things about Jordan Miller's injury is if he doesn't get hurt, Jake is red-shirted. That gives him a year to learn this offense and grow and then step in when Jordan's gone"

On the upcoming schedule:
"Shorter has our assistant coach from the last 2 years, Wade Anderson down there. I think he's really doing a good job. They went down and won at West Alabama a couple weeks ago, they're dangerous. Like a lot of teams in this league, like Auburn-Montgomery, if you don't bring it you've got a fight on your hands. The longer you let a team like that stay with you, the more chance you have to taking a loss when you shouldn't. Its clearly a game we should win, but then again so was Auburn-Montgomery.  If we're going to do anything we hope as a team this year, we cannot lose here anymore. We've got to win these games at home. Its really nice to win them like we did tonight. There haven't been many times, even on the 11 game win streak, where I could empty the bench. I wish we could've done it sooner, but at least we were able to do it. Tyler got a couple free throws and was bragging in the locker room that he was leading the team in free throw percentage again. You want to get those guys in there and I wish it could have happened sooner tonight, but it just didn't happen that way."

WHAT'S NEXT:
The Bucs return to Canale Arena Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. as they face Shorter for Homecoming.