Principia's second-half three-point shooting dooms Griffins

St. Louis, Mo. - Fontbonne University men's basketball suffered a 78-67 loss tonight in their first home game of 2017. It was a close matchup against the Principia College Panthers as the Griffins trailed by just four points with 7:35 left to play. The Panthers secured three consecutive layups and a trey to give them an 11-point advantage. Principia would hold their largest lead of the contest (13 points) with 4:12 to go.

Junior Jack Lake recorded the only double-double for the Griffins with career highs in both points (18) and rebounds (10). Lake secured seven buckets on 16 attempts along with three free throws. Eight of his 10 boards were defensive. Senior Orkan Bakis wasn't far behind with 17 points including two treys. He made six of 14 attempts and fellow senior Jeff Smith notched 12 points, missing only one of his seven shot attempts.

Senior Trey Watkins dished out eight assists, four in each half for a career-high night. His previous high of seven occurred in last year's 10-point loss at Principia.

Principia's Parker Davidson secured 14 rebounds and 14 points to lead the Panthers while Adaku Anumu nailed four three-pointers for the team's high 18 points. Big man Justin Ball finished the night with 16 points and six rebounds.

Fontbonne is on the road at Spalding midweek and then will start a three-game homestand by hosting Iowa Wesleyan at 3 p.m. next Saturday, January 14th.