Box Score CARLINVILLE---After trailing most of the second half, the Panthers stormed back in ferocious fashion to clip Blackburn 77-74 on the road. With 15 seconds left in a tie game senior
Adaku Anumu broke his defender off on the left wing and hit a game winning three-pointer. The Panthers then forced a tough shot from the Beavers and the celebration was on. The victory marked the third consecutive conference win for the team moving their record to 7-6 in league play.
The game started off in favor of the Beavers as they grabbed an early lead, 9-4. The Panthers first buckets came from freshman
TreVaughn Goodman and senior
Justin Ball. The Panthers began to cut into the lead when sophomore
Micah Paulson hit a deep ball to move the game within four points. After Paulson's long ball and a tip in from Ball, junior
Parker Davidson got in on the action and hit a triple giving the Panthers a 16-15 lead with 11:52 left in the half.
The teams traded blows over the next four minutes until the Panthers opened up a seven-point lead behind tallies from Davidson and Anumu. The Beavers came back after that and even got a small lead that the Panthers shrunk to one, 36-35 at the half.
Ball hit a jumper from the top of the key to start the half off and put the Panthers back on top. Blackburn responded with steady play and five minutes into the half they had built a 50-42 lead.
Trailing by eight the Panthers scratched their way back into the game with buckets from Anumu, Davidson, and Paulson to cut the lead to just two points with 11:22 left.
Both teams traded baskets but the Beavers kept a lead and were able to push it to six with 4:22 left. From there, Paulson hit a deep ball and after a stop, Ball finished a nice feed in the lane from Goodman to make the deficit just one.
At the 1:27 mark Blackburn took a 72-71 lead on a pair of free throws. The Panthers went inside to Ball on next possession who kicked it to junior
Jeff Ross on the wing who nailed a three-pointer that kissed the sky before dropping in pure giving the Panthers a two point lead with 56 seconds left.
Blackburn came down and scored to tie the game at 74 on next possession with 42 seconds left. Moments later with 15 seconds left Anumu iced the game for the Panthers.
Davidson led the way for the Panthers turning in an all around gem with 19 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. Anumu added 17 while Ball had 14 points and 8 rebounds.
Up next the Panthers have back-to-back home games starting Monday against Greenville.
