Jacksonville, IL—The Principia Men's Basketball team traveled to Jacksonville, IL to take on the MacMurray College Highlanders in their most recent conference matchup of the season. The Panthers built up a big lead in this one but a late push from the Highlanders made it interesting towards the end, and the Panthers hung on for a win by a score of 92-84.
The Panthers got off to somewhat of a sluggish start as the Highlanders connected on a quick free-throw and a jumper by Drew Burwinkel for a quick 3-0 lead before they settled into the contest. After a shaky first couple minutes, senior TreVaughn Goodman slashed through the lane and finished a tough lay-up for the team's first basket, and from there the Panthers were off to the races. With 16:50 left in the half, a thunderous dunk from sophomore Payton Sellers gave the Panthers an 8-7 lead, one that they didn't relinquish for the remainder of the game. Throughout the first half the Panthers' bigger guards were able to work their way around the smaller Highlander defenders, and that length resulted in takeaways on the other end of the court as well. With 8:31 left in the half, senior Brennan Paulson connected on a jumper to push the Panther lead to 16 points, their largest to that point. As the first half came to a close the Panthers headed into the locker room with an even bigger lead, up 49-30.
Coming out of halftime the Panthers wanted to continue to push the pace against the Highlanders and avoid letting them back into the game. For the first ten minutes they succeeded, as the Highlanders never got within 20 points. Sellers continued his career high performance by knocking down multiple three-pointers and the Panthers seemed to be clicking on all cylinders. However, with around seven minutes left the Panthers began to run into foul trouble, and a momentum shift was felt as the Highlanders made their run. Sloppy turnovers and bad offense resulted in MacMurray cutting the lead down to just six points with 17 seconds left, but clutch free-throw shooting from the Panthers proved too much for a Highlander comeback. The Panthers held on for the win, 92-84.
Good to Know- Sophomore Payton Sellers had a career day, putting up 31 points off of 10-16 shooting from the field to go along with 9 rebounds. Sophomore AJ Byrd also turned in a great performance, pouring in 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. Kevin Wingert also turned in a nice game, finishing with 10 points and 5 rebounds.
Up Next—The Panthers will travel to St. Louis to take on the Fontbonne University Griffins on Tuesday night at 7:30 pm.
