Elsah, IL- The Principia Men's Basketball team played their first home game of the regular season on Saturday November 10th against Millikin University, after battling tough for 40 minutes the Panthers fell 96-76.
The game started off quickly as Millikin hit their first shot of the game and continued to roll early. Millikin was able to jump out to a 7-2 start before the Panthers locked in. Micah Paulson got aggressive on the offensive end and was able to hit a pair of free throws followed by a deep three pointer to get Prin right back into the game. For the next few minutes each team fought back and forth exchanging the lead. Half way through the first half Millikin attempted to pull away hitting a few consecutive shots but freshman Kevin Wingert scored his first college points with a beautiful three pointer from the corner to keep Prin in the game.
In the final minutes of the first half Millikin attempted to run a zone defense to slow down the offensive attack of Principia but timely three point shooting by Zach Matters and Brennan Paulson continued the offensive success for the Panthers. With the game tied at 44 Millikin was able to make a tough contested mid range jumper at the buzzer to take a 46-44 lead into half.
Principia came out in the second half with good energy and effort on both ends of the floor. TreVaughn Goodman jumped the passing lane and took it the distance with a two hand dunk to get things going. The very next play Clark Davidson snatched a rebound and threw an outlet to TreVaughn Goodman for back to back dunks. Five minutes into the second half Micah Paulson got a layup to open a 5 point lead for the Panthers.
Millkin was able to turn the tide and take back the lead during a 5 minute scoring drought for the Panthers. Several barely missed shots and turnovers caused Principia to fall behind in the game and they wouldn't be able to scrap back in. Even with Millikin's lead ballooning late in the second half Principia hung tough and took each possession one at a time. Millikin was ultimately able to take the victory wining 96-76.
Good to Know
Micah Paulson led all scorers in the game with 31 points as well as going 12-12 from the free throw line. Micah is averaging 29 points per game so far this season.
Up Next
The Panthers will be traveling to Jacksonville IL to play in the Illinois College tournament. They will play the first game at 8pm on November 16th versus Illinois College.
