LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Spalding University men's basketball team defeated the Blackburn College Beavers, 82-65, Thursday night at Derek Smith Gymnasium. With the win, the Eagles improved to 8-5 on the season and 5-1 in SLIAC play while the beavers fell to 2-10 and 1-4.

Four Eagles scored in double figures in a balanced scoring attack, led by 19 points from Brandon Goeing and 17 points off the bench from James Turner. Goeing and Turner combined to shoot 10-13 on three point field goals. Brandon Gabriel and Chris Leon added 15 and 10 points, respectively, for the Eagles who finished the game shooting 58 percent from the field as a team.

The game stayed tight throughout the first half with five ties and six lead changes in the first 17 minutes. A layup by Blackburn gave the Beavers a 31-29 lead with 3:10 to go before intermission. Spalding closed the half on a 10-2 spurt and took a 39-33 lead into the break.

Spalding scored the first four points of the second half to increase the lead to ten points, the first double digit margin of the game for the Eagles. Although the Beavers would slice the lead down to six points moments later, that's as close as they would get, as Spalding used a series of mini-spurts to pull away from the Beavers. The lead would eventually balloon to 25 points, at 82-57 on another three-pointer from Turner, his fifth of the game in five attempts, and SU would earn the 82-65 win.

Up next for the Eagles is Saturday's tilt against conference foe Iowa Wesleyan Saturday at 3:00 p.m. EST in Derek Smith Gymnasium.   

Courtesy of Evan Skaggs