Carlinville, IL—The Principia Men's Basketball team traveled to Carlinville, IL to take on the Blackburn Beavers in their latest conference matchup. The Panthers started the game off strong, but a slow start to the second half and a struggle rebounding the ball would turn out to be the Panthers downfall in this matchup as they would fall 83-72.
The game started of well for the Panthers on the offensive end as they would get hot from 3-point land early. Down 8-10 with 14:25 left in the half, Senior
Micah Paulson would hit a deep 3-pointer to give the Panthers their first lead of the game. On the next offensive possession, Paulson would again come down and nail a 3-ball from the wing, which would then be followed by a corner 3-pointer from his brother, Junior
Brennan Paulson that would give the Panthers a 17-15 lead. The scoring would continue to be back and forth as both teams started to settle into the game, and with 7 minutes left in the half the Panthers would find themselves up by 4. After a steal from
Brennan Paulson on the defensive end, he would find Junior
TreVaughn Goodman on the other end for an emphatic dunk that would put the Panthers up by 8, their largest lead of the game with 5 minutes left in the first half. The last five minutes would belong to Blackburn as they started to climb back into the game, and after two free throws from Jamaya Wyatt at the end of the half, the Panthers would head into the locker room with a 6-point lead.
Coming out of the half, the Panthers knew that Blackburn would pick up the pace on both ends of the court, and that is exactly what happened. Just three minutes in to the half, Jamaya Wyatt would finish a lay-up for the Beavers that would bring the game to a 44-44 tie and would be the last time the Panthers held the lead for the game. Blackburn combined a blitz style offensive attack with high-pressure defense that seemed to put the Panthers on their heels, all while the Panthers were struggling to rebound the ball which allowed the Beavers to score numerous second chance points on the offensive end. With 10 minutes left in the half, Blackburn had pushed their lead to 9, but the Panthers never quit throughout this contest. With the odds stacked against them and a rowdy home crowd, the Panthers fought until the final whistle, unfortunately coming up short in this one by a score of 83-72.
Good To Know
Micah Paulson would have a monster game for the Panthers tonight as he would finish with 42 points on 16-26 shooting, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists.
Micah Paulson now has 1553 points in only three seasons. He is only 3 points away from tying the NCAA Principia all time record set by current Head Coach,
Todd Zimmerman. In what will be Paulson's last game on Monday, he will look to put himself at the top of the record books. Junior
TreVaughn Goodman would also turn in a nice game filling up the stat sheet with 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Next Up
The Panthers will travel to St. Louis this Monday night to take on the Webster University Gorloks in their last game of the season. If you're around the St. Louis area, come check out the Panthers at 7:30 PM as they wrap up the season!
