ST. LOUIS, MO - On Tuesday night, the Principia Men's Basketball team traveled to St. Louis to play against the SLIAC #1 seed, Fontbonne University Griffins. This was the second game of a back to back, after the Panthers fell to Eureka College at home on Monday. Although the Panthers had some good moments where they were clicking on all cylinders, they were not able to get the job done against a tough opponent.
The first half started out rough for the Panthers as their first four possessions ended on a turnover or a missed shot, leading to Fontbonne transition points. Principia fell behind 20-5 about nine minutes into the game and called a time out to try and regroup. Behind some amazing 3-point shooting from
Jake Kampf, the Panthers were able to slowly make their way back into the game. Kampf made five 3-pointers in the first half, which helped cut the Griffins' lead to as low as four points with seven minutes left in the half. Fontbonne was able to close out the half strong, and Principia went into half time down by 13 points. The Panthers had once again dug themselves a hole they would have to fight out of.
The Panthers started the second half struggling to get any stops, which made it tough for them to close the scoring gap. Principia did make a couple little runs where they were able to bring the lead back down to seven points, and gave themselves a fighting chance to win the game. However, the Panthers would continue to struggle offensively, while the Griffins offense was too consistent and never stopped attacking the Principia defense. Fontbonne is a very disciplined team and kept forcing the Panthers into playing the Griffins' game. This made it hard for Principia to make any sort of comeback as they eventually fell by a final score of 94-75.
Good To Know: Jake Kampf finished the game with 21 points, shooting 5-7 from the 3 point line.
Shemarri Miles finished the game with 19 points and 4 assists, while
AJ Byrd put up 12 points along with 9 rebounds.
Up Next: The Panthers will look to close out their regular season with a win on Saturday at 3 pm at Eureka College. Check out the streaming link on the Men's Basketball page and support the team in the last game before they try to make their playoff run.
