PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Opening their Thanksgiving holiday with The Battle at the Beach with a tough test, the No. 8 Freed-Hardeman University bounced back from their season's first loss with a 77-60 victory over the Xavier University of Louisiana Gold Rush.
Quan Lax opened up the night with a triple to put the Lions (5-1) up early. The Gold Rush would answer with a pair of three throws and a layup to take their first - and only - lead of the game. Lax would fire back with a second 3-pointer, followed by a
JJ Wheat layup. XULA would knock down a pair of jumpers to tie the game 11-11 at 12:44, but that would be the closest the Gold Rush would come to matching the Lions, where Phil Morton's jumper would be followed by
Sam Powell drilling back-to-back 3-pointers ot put the Lions on to by eight. Geraldo Land and
Peyton Law tallied long balls in the waning minutes, helping lead FHU to a 40-21 haltime lead.
While the first half featured small runs from each team, the second frame saw XULA (3-1) answer each of FHU's buckets with scores of their own. It seemed the mission for the FHU shooters was to drive into the lane, exemplified by their first-half tally of 7-13 from long range in the first half shrank to FHU only attempting three 3-pointers in the second half.Â
After shooting 37% in their last outing, the Lions exploded to a 62% mark from the floor, while showing unselfish play by earning assists on 21 out of the 29 made field goals in the victory.
Geraldo Lane led the Lions with 20 points - one shy of his career high by going 9-11 from the floor.
Quan Lax was one assists short of a double-double by ending with 14 points and nine assists.
Phil Horton and
Hunter Scurlock both grabbed five rebounds each.
Â
Up Next
The Lions will continue their stay in Panama City, finishing their turn in the Battle at the Beach against the (RV) Southwest Assemblies of God (Texas) University Lions on Tuesday November 21 at 1:00 p.m.
