The Spalding University men's basketball team fell in their home opener to Birmingham-Southern, 78-59, Wednesday night at Derek Smith Gymnasium.

Brandon Goeing and Renaldo Moore led the Golden Eagles. Goeing led all SU scorers with 16 points on 4-of-12 shooting, while Moore scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

The Golden Eagles got out to a 6-0 start behind a pair of baskets from Moore and two James Abrams free throws, but the Panthers responded with an 8-0 run to take the lead on a Ross Welch layup at the 15:23 mark. Another Moore jumper knotted the score at 8-8 and SU took an 11-10 lead on a James Turner layup two minutes later. However, Birmingham-Southern went on another 8-0 run to take an 18-11 lead, and slowly stretched it to 13 taking a 41-28 lead to the break.

Birmingham-Southern' s Alex Avery hit back-to-back jumpers to start the second have to push the Panthers lead to 17, but three-pointers by Brandon Gabriel and Brandon Goeing fueled and 11-3 Spalding run that got SU within single digits at 48-39 with 14:21 left to play. The two teams traded baskets over the next seven minutes and the gap remained at nine at 60-51 with 6:50 to go. The Panthers put the game out of reach with a 13-0 run, and the Golden Eagles went on to lose 78-59.

Larry Thomas led the visiting Panthers with 20 points, going 7-of-13 from the field. 

The Golden Eagles will be back in action Saturday, November 29 when they host Transylvania University at 4:00 p.m. EST.