Joliet, Ill - The Fighting Saints 3-point basket barrage was too much for the visiting Panthers on Saturday evening. The University of Saint Francis (12-7) connected on 10 of 21 3-point field goal attempts to upend the Panthers by a final score of 92-61.

After a back and forth start to the game with the Panthers trailing 19-13 at the 9:54 mark, back-to-back 3-point baskets by the Fighting Saints' Andrew Lerg and an additional triple from Eric Chesser jumped the score to 28-13 in favor of the host Fighting Saints. It was the beginning of a 26-7 run for the University of Saint Francis over the first half's final minutes before taking a 48-27 lead into the break, and ending a half in which they shot 63 percent from the field. 

A Nick Neal (Detroit, MI) layup and a Kyle Sander's (Knox, IN) jumper in the paint cut the Panther deficit to 19 with 16:44 left in the game and would trigger a 14-3 run and bring the score to 55-43 with a little over 10 minutes to play. After a called timeout by the Fighting Saints, the Saints would string together five consecutive scoring possessions and would eventually rebuild their lead to 72-47 with 7:09 left to play in the game before claiming the 92-61 home victory.

The Panthers were led in scoring by Neal with 21 points, who also dished out three assists and had 2 steals. Sanders added an additional 12 points and was one rebound shy of a double-double, grabbing nine rebounds. Freshman forward David Kelly (Indianapolis, IN) notched double digits in scoring with 10 points, and also grabbed four rebounds. Freshman Nick Lafty (Hobart, IN) contributed six points coming off the bench.

On the game, the Panthers shot 48.9 percent from the field, and tallied 23 defensive rebounds.

Purdue University North Central will begin the second series of CCAC Conference play on Wednesday as they host Trinity International University (3-18, 2-5) at 7:00pm CST at the La Porte Civic Auditorium. In the first matchup of the season with TIU, the Panthers came away with a 71-64 road victory.