Elsah, IL—The Principia Men's basketball team played host to the Iowa Wesleyan Tigers in another conference matchup that featured two teams looking to get back to winning ways. After a tough loss at Fontbonne on Tuesday the Panthers were looking to defend home court this afternoon, and after a tightly contested game the Panthers came away victorious by a score of 80-73.
The Panthers came out on fire on both ends of the court as they turned defense into offense multiple times and forced the Tigers into tough shots for most of the first half. The Panthers' first basket of the game came off a missed lay-up from sophomore AJ Byrd, but fellow sophomore Payton Sellers came flying through the lane for the put-back dunk that got the entire crowd out of their seats and gave the Panthers some early momentum. The rest of the starting five got in on the scoring action as Byrd and TreVaughn Goodman connected on several lay-ups each, and Clark Davidson converted two free-throws to give the Panthers an early 15-6 lead, forcing the Tigers to take a quick timeout. One thing the Panthers did really well for the first portion of the half was limit the Tigers' offense to just ten points in the first ten minutes of the game and force Iowa Wesleyan to take tough contested jump shots, which allowed the Panthers to jump out to their big lead. As the half wore on however, the Tigers slowly began to find their stride and the teams headed into the locker room with the Panthers leading 41-32.
Coming out of the half, the Panthers seemed to be a little dazed on both ends of the court, and after a three-pointer from Iowa's Jake Neubauer, the lead had been cut to just one point with fifteen minutes remaining in the game. The Panthers responded with a run of their own, and after a lay-up from senior Brennan Paulson the lead was pushed back to seven with ten minutes left in the half. The Panthers traded baskets for a little while until they finally seemed to pull away, when a lay-up from Sellers pushed the lead to 11 points with just 2:30 left on the clock. Iowa Wesleyan began to foul but the Panthers struggled from the free-throw line, causing some late-game concern. Fortunately, solid defense on the other end made sure that the Tigers never regained the lead. After a well fought game the Panthers came out on top, 80-73.
Good to Know—The Panthers had three players finish with double-doubles in this contest! Payton Sellers had a monster game finishing with 17 points and 16 rebounds, TreVaughn Goodman led the Panthers with 19 points and 13 rebounds, and AJ Byrd finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Up Next—The Panthers will travel to Eureka, IL to take on the Eureka Red Devils this Tuesday night at 7:30 pm.
