Panthers Come Up Just Short On Senior Day

Elsah, IL—The Principia Men's Basketball team hosted the Fontbonne University Griffins in their final game of the season this afternoon in Hay Field House. As this was the final game of the season, the Panthers celebrated their two seniors, Brennan Paulson and TreVaughn Goodman and hoped to send them off with a win in their final game of their careers. After a hard-fought contest, the Panthers would come up just short in this one as they fell to the Griffins by a score of 79-89.
 
With it being senior day today, the Panthers knew that it would be an emotional start to the game and wanted to come out and set the tone early and get the home crowd involved. Sophomore Clark Davidson would get the scoring started for the Panthers as he would finish two nice moves in the paint to spark a quick 4-0 run by himself that was then followed up by a driving dunk from fellow Sophomore Payton Sellers that got the crowd on its feet. After some back and forth scoring after that, the Panthers locked in on the defensive end and were able to push their lead to as many as 9 points after two free throws from TreVaughn Goodman, which forced a quick timeout from the Griffins. Coming out of the timeout, the Panthers seemed to be a little flat-footed, and Fontbonne took advantage of the lapse, going on a 24-11 run that would see the Griffins build a 12-point lead on the Panthers as the first half would come to a close. The Panthers would head into the locker room trailing the Griffins by a score of 31-43.
 
Coming out of the half, the Panthers knew that they needed to dig in on the defensive end in order to get themselves back in the game, and for the first part of the second half, Fontbonne would not let the Panthers get closer than 10 points. The struggle for the Panthers came when Fontbonne moved to a 2-2-1 press, which seemed to give the Panthers some problems, and caused turnover after turnover which stopped every run the Panthers tried to put together to get themselves back in the game. As the half wore on however, the Panthers seemed to figure it out, and big plays from a number of Panthers, and a commitment to better defense saw the Panthers cut the Griffin lead to just 4 points after a jumper from Goodman with 4:12 left in the game. Unfortunately for the Panthers however, that would be the closest they would get as the run would come up just short, and the Panthers would fall by a score of 79-89.
 
Good to Know—Clark Davidson had a great game for the Panthers today as he finished with a game high 28 points to go along with 9 rebounds. Sophomore Payton Sellers also had a nice game for the Panthers as he finished with 22 points and 9 rebounds as well.
 
The Principia Men's Basketball team wants to say thank you for all of the support throughout this season. We look forward to seeing you next year for another season of Panther basketball!