MARIETTA, Ga. --- Nathan Presnell and Chris Barnes both found their groove in the paint and from mid-range, scoring 23 and 20 points, respectively, but the Life University men's basketball team came up just short of a second half comeback, losing at home to Columbia International 82-77 Saturday afternoon in The Eagles Nest.

Life U (3-6, 0-4 MSC) made a run at things before the end of the game, erasing a late 13 point deficit, but could not fully bridge the gap against CIU (7-4, 4-4 AAC) to suffer its sixth-straight loss. The teams fought back-and-forth through the opening five minutes of play, trading the lead or tying things up eight times. C. Barnes scored back-to-back buckets to give the Running Eagles their largest lead of the game with 10:07 to go in the half at 22-15. The lead was maintained at +7 until after a Champ Dawson made layup the Rams went on a 13-0 run over a four minute span. A Trey Kelly layup in the final seconds of the half sent the teams to the break, Life U trailing 40-35.

The Running Eagles came out of the break playing hard, a pair of C. Barnes shots tying the game and then giving Life U back the lead with 13:19 to play at 53-51. CIU took the lead back on the following possession and started to create distance from Life U, finding a great deal of success against the Running Eagle defense by cutting to the basket or finding open looks at threes, extending their lead to 72-59 with just 5:47 to play. Life U pulled back to within two scores with 22 seconds to play, but was not able to force the turnovers they needed to send the game to extra time, losing 82-77.

Presnell and C. Barnes led the charge for the Running Eagles, helping to ensure that the team stayed in the game. Beside Presnell's game-high 23 points, the sophomore also collected seven boards and a team-high four assists. C. Barnes scored 20 points on .500 shooting, while also pulling down five rebounds of his own. Jordan Hernandez was the only other player to break into double-digit scoring, providing 10 points with a team best two made three pointers.

Life U generally shot pretty well in the game, hitting on .448 of their shots from the floor (30-for-67) and .867 from the charity stripe (13-for-15). The team's main shortcoming came through defensive mistakes, allowing CIU to shoot .577 (30-for-52) and an extremely efficient .421 (8-for-19) from deep. The teams tied in rebounds grabbed at 29, while Life U did a better job of taking care of the ball with 11 turnovers to the Rams' 16.

The men's basketball team gets back to Mid-South Conference play next week, hitting the road for a pair of games, starting with a Thursday, December 16th meeting with Freed-Hardeman at 9 PM.