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The men's basketball team rode a wave of hot first-half shooting, and weathered a second-half comeback to defeat the Army Black Knights 72-60 Sunday at Bender Arena.
Junior guard Garrison Carr led the Eagles early, hitting a triplet of three-pointers during a 22-4 AU run, and opened a 17-point lead.
The Eagles cruised for most of the first half, out-rebounding the Black Knights and making more than 55 percent of their shots while holding Army to just 33 percent shooting.
However, all the momentum AU had seemed to vanish after a single rebound. The Eagles were leading 30-15 with 4:30 remaining on the clock when Army's leading scorer, Jarrell Brown, missed a three-pointer. Junior Bryce Simon, who was having an excellent game up to that point with eight points and three rebounds in 12 minutes, grabbed the rebound, but came down awkwardly on his leg and immediately collapsed in pain. Simon stayed down for several minutes, as trainers attended to his knee, before walking off the court with a heavy limp. His injury prevented him from returning to the game.
Army seized on their opportunity, going on a 12-5 run that carried over into the second half to cut the lead to eight points. AU responded later in the half with a 9-2 run of their own to push the lead to 17 points with 11 minutes remaining.
Army wasn't done. After an electrifying dunk by Simon's replacement, freshman Nick Hendra, Army went on a 17-6 run to cut the lead to just four points, punctuated by a three-pointer by Brown with just over 4:30 to go.
Despite this, AU held strong. Hendra responded with a jumper to stop the Army run and simultaneously jump-started an 11-3 Eagle run that extended their lead to 12 points. The Eagles made 17 of 20 free throws down the stretch to clinch the win.
Garrison Carr led all scorers with 23 points and held Army's Brown to just 15 points - well below his season average.
The story of the game came from the AU bench, however. Junior forward Jordan Nichols scored 10 points and grabbed a game high of eight rebounds, leading a 31-13 rebounding advantage for AU. Hendra scored a career high 11 points, all in the second half, and often stopped Black Knight charges.
"Quite simply, we don't win without [Hendra] today," AU Coach Jeff Jones said in a press release.
The win was AU's 20th of the season - a plateau the Eagles previously reached nine previous times in the program's history and for the first time since the 1989-90 season.
AU is now one win away from their first-ever NCAA Tournament berth. They advance to the Patriot League Finals for the fourth time in seven years, where they will face no. 3 Colgate Friday in Bender Arena. ESPN2 will also broadcast the game.
