Luther Pulls Away to Top 'Roos

SHERMAN, Texas - The Austin College men's basketball team was within five points with nine minutes left against visiting Luther College, but the Norse used a 20-10 run down the stretch to put the 'Roos away 73-58 on Thursday afternoon in Hughey Gym. The 'Roos are now 3-6 overall on the year.

Luther got out to a quick start, taking leads of 7-2 and 12-6 early, but Austin College rallied back to take a 14-12 lead on a basket by Chase Antosca with 11:41 left in the opening half. The Norse answered with a 9-0 run to go on top 21-14, and the lead grew to 26-16 with 6:59 remaining. Roman Strickland threw down a dunk with 4:11 on the clock to cut it to 28-20, and later knocked down a triple to trim it to 32-25 but the Norse got a trey from Aidan Bailey to send Luther into halftime leading 35-25. 

The margin grew to 42-29 early in the second half, but Austin College started to chip away at the lead with Jackson Rennie drilling a three and Antosca scoring two buckets, while Strickland made a pair of free throws to cut it to 48-44 with 11:25 left to play. The Norse quickly pushed the margin back to double figures before a three from Rennie made it 58-51 with under eight minutes on the clock, but Luther pushed it to 64-51 and maintained a double-digit lead down the stretch to make it a 73-58 final.

Strickland scored a game-high 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting, adding seven rebounds, and Rennie made 3-of-6 treys to finish with 11 for the 'Roos. Chanston Goodman dished out a game-high six assists for Austin College. Luther got 15 points, six rebounds, four assists, and four steals from Andrew Lazinbat and Ben Gill chipped in 14 points for the Norse, who made nine threes compared to just four for the 'Roos.