La Porte, IN - The host Panthers (3-14, 2-3) jumped out to an early 14-4 lead over the visiting Trolls of Trinity Christian College (7-11, 2-3) on Saturday evening and never looked back en route to claiming an 80-68 victory. The Panthers were paced by senior guard Nick Neal (Detroit, IN) who made 20 of 26 free throw attempts on his way to a game high of 35 points.

The Panther defense was swarming and turned over the Trolls 12 times while holding them to shooting just 30 percent from the field in the first half. The Panther defense held the Trolls to just 10 points in the game's first 11:00 of action. After the Panthers grabbed their largest lead of the first half at 20-12 with just slightly over 6:30 to play, the Trolls used free throws to cut the Panther lead to 33-28 halftime margin. 

After surrendering a 3-point basket to the Trolls on the first possession of the second half, cutting the Panther lead to 33-30, the Panthers regrouped and answered with a 12-4 run of their own over the next 3:30 of action. With a little over 5:30 left in the game, the Panthers would put the game out of reach with a 16-3 run and then converted their free throws in the final minutes to close out the win.

Junior guard Alphonse Futch (Indianapolis, IN) knocked down two of his three 3-point fields and finished the night with 17 points, while also leading the Panthers in rebounding by grabbing seven.

Sophomore forward Kyle Sanders (Knox, IN) tallied nine points and four rebounds, while freshman guard Mario Herron (Hammond, IN) contributed seven points and latched on to five rebounds.

In addition to Neal's 35 point performance, he also had four assists and five rebounds.

In the game the Panthers shot slightly over 48 percent from the field, while holding the Trinity Christian to just 39 percent. 

The Trolls were led in scoring by BJ Wortham with 31 points.

The win puts the Panthers in a six team tie for third place in the CCAC Conference standings.

The Panthers will continue their home stand and host CCAC Conference opponent Judson University on Wednesday at 7:00pm CST at the La Porte Civic Auditorium.