MARIETTA, Ga. --- Chris Barnes went off for a season-best 29 points, helping the Life University men's basketball team post a dominant 86-68 victory over Carver College in the Eagles Nest Monday night in the team's home finale.
Life U (8-18, 6-10 MSC) found themselves in a decently close game early as Carver scored enough to keep within striking distance of the Running Eagles. Early in the contest,
Champ Dawson stole the ball off a Carver inbounds, lobbing the ball of to
Cam Horton who slammed the ball down for a 12-5 lead. With 11:30 to play
Nathan Presnell skipped a pass over to
Mason Barnes who made a shot from behind the arc to boost the lead to 20-12 as Life U started pulling away.
Chris Barnes ended his dominant, 18-point first half with a quick flurry of points, starting with a massive fast-break dunk which he followed up with his second made three-pointer of the season to push the lead to 41-26 with only 45 seconds to go till the half. Another Life U score saw the Running Eagles enter the break holding a 43-26 advantage.
The Running Eagles came out of the half quick, C. Barnes and
Jordan Hernandez making shots from behind the arc before Horton lobbed up another pass to C. Barnes who slammed down a thunderous dunk for a 53-28 lead. Life U recorded dunks in back-to-back possessions, starting with a turn-around dunk in the post by Presnell which was followed by Dawson assisting his second alley oop of the contest, this time to
Tylan Green with 13:05 to play. After getting some substitutions in, Life U got slightly sloppy with the ball, allowing the Cougars to close the gap slightly, Life U leading 70-50 with 8:45 left in the contest.
Zack Stewart got in on the scoring to stop the Cougars run, making back-to-back deep balls to extend the lead to 80-50 with 6:26 to play. Making full substitutions, Life U slowed things down over the final five minutes of play while the Cougars continued to push the ball, seeing the game reach its final score of 86-68.
Barnes 29 points lead all players by far, the graduate transfer having an extremely efficient night shooting at 12-for-17 while also having his best night from deep, hitting 2-for-3. Hernandez just missed out on a double-double, scoring 12 points while grabbing nine boards. Horton also narrowly missed a double-double in his last game in the Eagles Nest, pulling down 10 rebounds to go with his eight points and three steals.
Life U shot well across the board, outdoing the Cougars in overall percentage 48.5%-42.9% and from deep 35.7%-18.8%. Both teams scored well in the paint, the Running Eagles holding a slight 40-36 advantage in points scored there, but Life U had a massive edge in rebounds, 46-28, which led to the team doubling Carver's second chance point output (12-6).
The Running Eagles end their regular season with a pair of Mid-South Conference road games, starting with a game at Cumberland (Tenn.) Thursday, February 17th at 9 PM.
