MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Christian Brothers University men's basketball team fell for the second consecutive conference game 73-63 to Alabama Huntsville in Canale Arena.  

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• A pair of made baskets from Jacob Lyons (Hernando, Miss./Christian Brothers HS) combined with an Adam Dieball (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) layup gave CBU a 7-3 edge early on in the game. That blossomed to a 16-11 advantage for the Bucs following another Dieball layup that was assisted by Brad Miller (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder HS).
• The Chargers responded with a 15-7 run, capitalized by a Tanner Finley lay-in with just over four minutes remaining. The Chargers lead by as many as seven in the first half before CBU answered with a run of their own.
• The Bucs trimmed their deficit to four just before halftime, trailing 32-28 at the break.
• Alabama Huntsville came storming out of the gate in the second half, going on another 14-7 run to push their lead to double digits for the first time, 45-35 with 15:09 remaining.
• CBU eventually tied things up at 47 with a late surge of their own, but could never retake the lead. After the Bucs tied the game, UAH ripped off nine straight and would not relent.
• Both teams went back-and-forth in the final minutes, but the Bucs would never trim the lead to fewer than six.

KEY STATS:

• Adam Dieball (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East HS) was the high scoring man for the Bucs, piecing together a 22 point performance on 10-of-18 shooting from the field. Dieball also hauled in eight boards, but uncharacteristically did not record an assist.
• Joe Laravie (Kettering, Ohio/Alter HS) joined Dieball as the only other Buc in double figures, scoring 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting, along with three rebounds, two steals and an assist in his team-high 39 minutes of play.

UP NEXT:

• Christian Brothers University hits the road this upcoming weekend to face a pair of GSC opponents. The Bucs face West Alabama on Thursday followed by Montevallo on Saturday. First tip against the Tigers is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

MEN'S HEAD COACH MIKE NIENABER

On UAH responding to the Bucs' second half run:
"Well, you have to give them credit. With some of it, you can't keep coming back and saying they are hot and we are not. At some point, you have to say, 'hey, we have to do a better job defensively or offensively, to get better looks.' Six-for-18 (from 3PT) is not terrible, but it's not great and then you give up 13-for-27. We just have to go back to the drawing board. The big thing I told our guys, and I tried to lead them with this before the game tonight, I think we are starting to put a lot of pressure on ourselves. I think our upperclassmen, like Joe (Laravie) and Adam (Dieball) especially, they're putting a lot of pressure on themselves, kind of carrying the weight on their shoulders. You miss a couple of shots, and start getting your head down. We've got a team that is good enough to win in the Gulf South. We've got a team that is good enough to win a lot of games. We've just got to re-find ourselves and have faith in what we are doing. Just keep plugging. The team I always talk about, the best team in my 35+ years of coaching that we had on March 1st, was our 2008 team that wound up winning the Gulf South. We were 11-9 on January 30th. We lost a heartbreaker at Harding that night, they hit a tip-in shot at the buzzer and beat us by one. We went on an 11-game winning streak after that, and the only thing that slowed that team down was (injury). . . But it clicked, we kind of got going. You look at a team like Lee this year that got off to a slow start and then all of the sudden it just clicked. And I think that can still happen with this team. But it ain't going to happen if we don't believe it can. These guys were all part of a team that went off on a 11 or 12-0 run to start the season last year, they are capable of doing it. But at some point you have to step up and do it. You have to making plays, you have to make the big shots."

On UAH second chance shots:
"At critical times, they stepped up. How many of those threes were on second or third chances? We would get the stop and it seemed like you knew when they got the second (attempt) it was going to go in. You just knew, the way the game was going with the confidence. We closed the gap, I think we tied it there in the second half, but we just never could get the upper hand."

On the Chargers defense going 1-on-1 against Dieball and staying on shooters:
"They did the same thing with Jake (Lyons). I thought Jake (and Adam), if they had gotten a little more solid with their balance around the basket, I thought they could have scored a lot inside. But he got charged a couple of times; and got out of control. And we didn't exploit it as well as we needed to."

On the upcoming road trip:
"Going on the road in college basketball is generally not the way to get right. But we're going to have to. We have to figure it out and find a way. I told them the group we've got is good enough to win on any given night. It's not like we are going into games feeling like we've got to play so well. I think it might help us a little bit, it hurt us some offensively the last couple of games, but to play teams that so much mirrors (us) and really understands the Princeton offense. So there is a lot of things that we are not getting the past two games, that we get most games. So hopefully, we get away from this and start playing some teams that aren't quite as familiar guarding our offense. Maybe we will get this offense going, because offensively the last couple of games has just been ugly. We've got to find a way to score if we are going to be competitive in these games."