MEMPHIS-The Christian Brothers University Bucs celebrated Homecoming with an 89-80 win over Shorter Saturday night as five Bucs scored in double figures.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
• For the second straight game, the Bucs (15-6, 7-6 GSC) never trailed, opening the game on a 22-7 run capped by an Alex Trentman (Alexandria, Ky./Bishop Brossart HS) layup with 15:12 remaining in the first half. The Bucs made six consecutive three-pointers over the game's first 5:13 as they staked the early lead.
• Shorter (3-18, 3-10) used a 10-2 burst to close within 31-24 on a pair of TayVaughn Major free throws with 7:38 remaining in the half.
• CBU put the game out of reach early in the second half as a 15-0 run capped by a Cody Garbuzinski (Memphis, Tenn./Christian Brothers HS) triple gave them a 56-32 lead, their largest of the day, with 17:00 remaining.
• The Hawks slowly cut into the lead, first with a 7-0 burst to come within 56-39 on an Amonte Potter layup with 15:50 remaining. Later, an 8-0 run brought them within 64-51 on a Jacob Newman layup with 10:32 to play.
• The Hawks never came closer than 10 until a Potter triple with 16.5 seconds remaining set the final margin at 89-80.

KEY STATS:
• Jeff Larkin (Cincinnati, Ohio/La Salle HS) scored 26 points to lead the Bucs, adding six rebounds, two steals and two assists.
• Adam Dieball (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) scored 18 with 10 assists, three blocks and three rebounds in 29 minutes.
• Joe Laravie (Kettering, Ohio/Alter HS) tacked on 15 points with three assists.
• Brad Miller (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder HS) scored 12 points with five rebounds and four assists.
• Garbuzinski added 10 with eight rebounds in 20 minutes.
• Trentman grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds to go with four points and two blocks in 29 minutes.
• The Bucs shot 50.0 percent (32-of-64) from the field, including 38.7 percent (12-of-31) from three-point range. Shorter finished 38.2 percent (26-of-68) overall, including 38.1 percent (9-of-23) from beyond the arc.
• CBU out-rebounded the Hawks 41-38, but Shorter held a 10-7 edge in offensive rebounds and forced a season-high 18 CBU turnovers while committing 14.

HEAD COACH MIKE NIENABER'S THOUGHTS:
On the ups and downs in the game:
"That's what's been frustrating about this team all year. Even when we were winning those first 11 games there were too many like tonight, where you feel like you're there just on the edge of closing it out but don't. Sometimes it's you miss a good shot that just doesn't go in, but we missed a ton of layups, a ton of post ups and I just felt like it was a game we should have put away but never could. Now I give them credit, they kept scrapping and when you're having a season like they're having and you have the new coach in the honeymoon sort of period, there's not a lot of pressure. They're almost playing like a church league team, with #0 out there flinging shots up from anywhere that were just going in. Some of it was bad defense but some of it was some really crazy shots that were going in, so what can you say? Its frustrating that we couldn't put it away. We had good moments, we finished the half well after we got that early lead by making some shots. But then Adam getting his second foul was troubling, because the game was inside 10 points at that time. Jake does such a good job defensively, I love his defense and the passion he plays with. I told him at halftime I think Jake does a better job posting than Adam. When he gets the ball in there at the post, and some of that is the defenses being geared up for Adam, but when its Jake he gets it down there. So many times when Adam gets it they push him out and he wind up catching it 15-twentyft away from the basket. But Jake is just not calmed down enough, he's just a freshman. Unfortunately that what's been frustrating with these games, if we go out and execute we can get him more minutes and the more minutes he plays the better he'll get. The same is for players like Mitch and again there are a lot of young guys out there. We're trying to get minutes from young guys that are younger than most of the guys they're playing against. We've got two freshmen playing a lot fo minutes and I want to get them more honestly. These are the types of games where I wish we could have done it, but it just didn't happen since we couldn't separate. Give them credit though for hanging in there."

On the spread-out scoring:
"The big thing these last two games for us going forward is Jeff's had two really good offensive games after a little bit of an off stretch. Adam has now had 3 or 4 good offensive game and starting to make those threes again which is major. I told him that is so big, it changes so much when he's knocking those like he has the last few games. I stress it to him to just keep coming in there and getting that extra shooting in because it will pay off down the stretch.  Joe had a solid game and ended up with 15 points. If he hadn't tried to dunk that one he'd have 17. He's such a solid player. Cody was cutting and got a couple point blank, hit a 3 which was good to see him get one drop. He comes in and works on it as hard as anyone, so it was nice to see that for him. Those are all encouraging things."

On the standings:
"The biggest thing for us right now, I don't think we can catch that first 3. I think West Alabama is pretty far away from us and has the tiebreaker on us. It's about that 4th spot now and winning as many games as we can to build our resume. Even if we just win our games at home we've got a good chance to get twenty. We've got enough home games left to where if we can take care of business here that will get us close to twenty.  If we go into the conference tournament  with over twenty wins we'll be in the NCAA discussion. Anyone with twenty will be in the talk. The 4th place thing just like last year is critical, because you want to have that first game at home. We don't want to finish 6th or 7th and have to go to Valdosta or one of those top three. It's so bunched up right now it's amazing. Talking to a couple of coaches, I say it's amazing looking at the standings, if the season ended yesterday Huntsville is sitting at home in 9th. I wouldn't bet anything that Lenny won't find a way to get them in there but that's how good the league is. I don't think the top teams are as good as those teams that we've had in the past. The problem is we've got 10 teams that are all just so so good and capable of beating you. You take it one more step, eve the teams at the bottom are really capable. Anytime we pick up a win it'll look better. There are just so many competitive teams that something good is going to happen somewhere.  Everyone's capable, so you've got to bring it every night."

On bouncing back after losses:
"We did bounce back from that and played a really good game at north Alabama. The Valdosta loss at home was really tough the way we lost. I think that was really the thing that kind of set us in a negative vibe. It's been a rough few weeks and it happened to us last year. We got the ship righted and hopefully with all the home games we can take care of business here and be ok. If we don't then we don't deserve to be ok. It's that simple, the job is clear and we either do it or we don't."

WHAT'S NEXT:
The Bucs return to action Thursday night at 7 p.m. as they host North Alabama.