NEED TO KNOW: Life U 81, Dalton State 76 

RECORDS: Life U 21-8, Dalton State 15-13

MONTGOMERY, AL — The Life University men's basketball team earned a SSAC Tournament win over Dalton State Wednesday afternoon, downing the Roadrunners 81-76 in the quarterfinal of the conference tournament.

In the first half, the Running Eagles and Roadrunners battled in the first half with Joshua Ward scoring 13 points and  adding five rebounds alongside Nathan Presnell who scored ten points and had two rebounds before going into halftime 34-34. 

The Running Eagles and the Roadrunners were battling back and forth in the first half with Life taking an early lead before Dalton State caught up and took the lead. Towards the end of the first half Life was back in the lead but the Roadrunners caught up making a tie by halftime. 

Going into the second half, the Running Eagles once again took the lead but Dalton State kept battling. It was not until the last three minutes of the game that Life took off and extended their lead going on a 8-3 run and never looked back. 

Overall, the Running Eagles dominated inside, scoring 50 points from inside the paint. The hard work and stellar efficiency helped the Running Eagles win. Life U shot 52.8% from the field and 78.6% form the charity stripe.  

In the win, the Running Eagles had three players scoring double digits. Ward added more points during the second half to end the game with a team high and season best 33 while also grabbing the team high 11 rebounds. Presnell added a total of 17 points to the scoreboard while Dara Olonade added 11 points, they bot grabbed six rebounds each. 

Up next, the Running Eagles will face the seventh-seeded Wolfpack from Loyola University. Fans can tune into tomorrow's SSAC semifinal matchup at 4:00 PM EST by accessing the links below.