St. Louis, MO- The Panthers were back in action today for the first time since Christmas break. Traveling to Saint Louis, the Panthers battled hard but ultimately fell to Division 2 Maryville 83-73. 

The game started out with great activity from the Panther's defense. On the first possession for Maryville the Panthers had them scrambling and junior Jeff Ross eventually collected a steal. Principia continued the strong defense early and forced multiple turnovers. The Panther's struggled to capitalize on these mistakes and the game was an offensive struggle for both teams early. 

The Panther's got on the board for the first time when sophomore Micah Paulson converted on a floater from inside the lane. The next possession senior Justin Ball hit a jumper and after getting a stop senior Adaku Anumu came down and hit a 3-point bucket himself to give the Panthers a 7-5 lead five minutes into the first half. 

Over the next four minutes the Saints went on a run and pushed their lead to 15-8  with 12:59 left in the half. The Panthers responded with back-to-back buckets in the paint from Anumu and Ball. After closing the gap to three, Maryville responded and went on a 8-2 run over a five minute stretch. 

The Panthers didn't give up facing a 12 point deficit. The offense picked up behind Anumu's shooting and kept closing the gap with a run eventually cutting the deficit to four when freshman Jamie McFarlane nailed a 3-pointer from the corner on a swing pass from junior Parker Davidson with three minutes left. 

The half came to a close on another barrage from Anumu, but Maryville managed to have a 35-30 lead heading into the break. Anumu had 19 at the half on 6-12 shooting from the field. 

The second half started with a back and forth action highlighted by a 3-pointer from Ross in the corner. Eventually Maryville started to build a lead with a steady offensive attack and went up by 19 with 8:19 left in the game. 

The Panthers wouldn't go down quietly however. Despite the large deficit the Panthers kept plugging away and got great energy off the bench. The Panthers trimmed the lead to 8 with 44 seconds left but it was too little too late. 

The Panther's had some great individual performances including 33 points from Anumu and a 13 point 11 rebound double-double from Davidson. 

Up next the Panther's face off against Blackburn at 7pm on Tuesday in Elsah.