The men’s basketball team hit a barrage of three-pointers to defeat the Lafayette Leopards 73-60 in front of 2,989 fans at Bender Arena for the annual Phil Bender.
The win comes after AU lost Wednesday night to the United States Naval Academy 72-53.
“Certainly the crowd was great,” Head Coach Jeff Jones said after the game. “It’s always an electric atmosphere and I think the team fed off the crowd and the crowd fed off the team’s performance.”
Senior forward Vlad Moldoveanu and junior guard Troy Brewer led the three-point charge for AU, as the two shot four for five combined in the first five minutes to lead a 17-6 run.
The Eagles never looked back as they shot 53.6 percent from the floor and 60 percent from behind the arc in the first half.
“I think we did really well in the first half,” Moldoveanu said. “We were moving the ball, we got open shots and were finding guys wide open.”
The Leopards tried to keep up in the first 20 minutes, but the dynamic scoring attack of AU’s big three — Moldoveanu, Brewer and junior forward Stephen Lumpkins — were too much as Lafayette could not cut the deficit below eight points and trailed by 13 at the break.
The Leopards only hit nine of 25 shots in the first half.
Lafayette kept the game close in the second half as Jared Mintz and Jim Mower combined for 22 points and the Leopard bench outscored the Eagles’ bench 27-8.
After Lafayette cut AU’s 16-point lead down to nine points with under a minute to play, Lumpkins put up another score down the stretch. The junior ended up with 21 points shooting eight for nine from the floor and five for six from the free throw line.
Brewer and Moldoveanu joined their teammate in double figure; scoring 13 and 17 points respectively.
American hit eight three-pointers, shooting a season best 53.3 percent from behind the arc.
This game ends the first half of Patriot League play as the Eagles conclude the first seven games with a 5-2 record. AU will next travel to Lehigh University on Feb. 6 and then to Lewisburg, Pa. on Feb. 9 to face the Bucknell University Bison and try to avenge a 75-60 loss to the Patriot League leaders.
“Every game is important,” Jones said. “College basketball’s crazy. Regardless of your opponent or ranking you just have to be ready to play and I think that’s more important for us. We have to do better at being ready and find the intensity.”
sports@theeagleonline.com
