Elsah, ILL. —The Principia Men's Basketball team played host to the Blackburn College Beavers in their last conference matchup before the team heads home for Christmas break. The Panthers were searching for their first conference win of the season but a slow first half proved to be the Panthers' downfall as they fell to the Beavers by a score of 94-102.
The Panthers got off to a quick start in this one as they raced out to a four point lead, forcing a quick timeout by the Beaver coaching staff. A free-throw from sophomore Payton Sellers and lay-ups from Clark Davidson and TreVaughn Goodman got the Panthers scoring started and had the team feeling good in the first couple minutes. Blackburn responded with a run of their own and took back the lead after a three-pointer from Bryson Kirby, and both teams traded baskets for the next few minutes. Blackburn went on multiple small runs to stretch their lead in the first half but the Panthers always had a response to bring the lead down to just one or two points before the Beavers would hit another pair of consecutive baskets to race out to another six or seven point lead. After a three-pointer from Blackburn with a minute remaining in the half and an offensive rebound tip-in as time expired, the Panthers found themselves down 15 heading into the break.
Coming out of the half the Panthers wanted to chip away at the Beaver lead and knew that they had to string together multiple stops on the defensive end to do that. Sellers came out of the half on fire as he knocked down two consecutive three-pointers to bring the Panthers within 11 early in the half, but the Panthers were unable to get stops on the other end, and the Blackburn lead stretched to as many as 20 points with 16 minutes left. The Panthers didn't quit however, and as the game wore on the team showed a lot of grit to slowly pull themselves back into the game. After Goodman knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:21 left in the game the Panthers had trimmed the lead down to just 5 points. Unfortunately, another Blackburn three-pointer on the next possession was the final nail in the coffin and Blackburn defeated the Panthers 102-94.
Good to Know—Payton Sellers led the team in scoring with 28 points and 6 three-pointers to go along with 4 rebounds. Senior TreVaughn Goodman chipped in 21 points of his own with 7 assists and 7 rebounds, and AJ Byrd and Clark Davidson contributed 17 and 14 points respectively.
Up Next—The Panthers will travel to St. Louis to take on Maryville University in an exhibition game on Monday afternoon at 3:15pm.
