Box Score Sophomore Jake Davis and senior Austin Claunch combined for 36 points Friday evening in helping the No. 13-ranked Emory men's basketball team to a season-opening win victory over Ferrum College. The Eagles sent the Panthers to their second defeat in as many games with an 81-67 victory in a game that was played at the Blast Center on the campus of Roanoke College.
Davis connected on eight-of-13 field goal attempts en route to his 19th career game of double-figure scoring. Claunch played a solid all-around game, hitting on four-of-eight from the floor and sinking all eight of his free throw attempts. In addition, he doled out five assists and chipped in four steals. Juniors Alex Greven and Michael Friedberg rounded out the team's double-figure scorers with 15 and 12 points, respectively, with Friedberg leading all players with 10 rebounds.
Emory posted a 50 percent mark (28-of-56) from the field while Ferrum ended the evening with a 42 percent showing (28-of-67). The Eagles enjoyed a decided edge at the charity stripe, sinking 83.3 of their attempts (20-of-24) compared to the Panthers 58.8 percent (7-of-12). Finally, Emory held a 42-32 bulge in rebounding.
With Davis notching 12 points and Greven and Claunch each contributing 11 points in the opening 20 minutes of action, the Eagles bolted to a 51-31 halftime lead. The Eagles were effective in transition which helped them sink 56 percent (18-of-32) of their field goal tries. Also aiding in the team's big lead was that it knocked down all 12 of its free throw opportunities. Emory rattled off the game's first nine points just three minutes into the affair before the Panthers picked up their first points with 15:27 left in the half. Ferrum did creep back to within three points at 11-8 but that was as close as it would get for the rest of the night as the Eagles came through with a pair of big scoring runs, the first being a 15-4 spurt that increased their lead from 15-10 to 30-14 with 7:35 left in the stanza and the second a 14-4 outburst over the final 2:30 of the half that accounted for the halftime score.
Emory kept the pressure on the Ferrum during the early stages of the second half with five different players scoring in a 13-6 scoring spree over the first five minutes of the stanza that gave the Eagles what would be their largest lead of the evening at 64-37. Emory led by a 24-point margin, 69-45, following a pair of Claunch free throws with 9:40 left, but Ferrum used a 15-4 scoring charge to cut the deficit to 73-60 with 4:53 remaining. However, a three-pointer by senior Justin Resnick, his second triple of the game, with 2:12 on the clock pushed Emory's cushion to 79-62 and sealed the outcome.
The Eagles return to action on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 19) when it battles Roanoke in a 2:00 p.m. tip.
