Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

ATLANTA, Ga - The Clark Atlanta University Panthers ran their record to 8-1 by forcing 30 turnovers and leading by as many as 21 points in defeating Paine College 71-52 Thursday at L.S. Epps Gymnasium.

Jalen Michell came off the bench to lead CAU with 17 points, 11 of them in the first half.

"I thought in the first half, the second unit with Jalen and Michael Vigilance, I thought those two came in and did a hell of a job for us, got the crowd into the game and really got us going," said CAU head coach Darrell Walker. "And then Damien Davis made that behind the back move and went in for a dunk.  That really got the crowd excited, energized us, and energized the bench.  Those two things were very big – in the first half, the bench with Jalen and Big Mike, and the second half with that move Double D did kind of energized the crowd and the whole team."

The Panthers, who are now 3-0 in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, trailed 6-4 just under four minutes into the game.  Shelvick Henry came into the game and over the next 14 minutes he hit three 3-pointers and a layup while Mitchell came in and scored ten points to push the Panthers to a 32-20 two minutes before the half ended. They led 32-23 at halftime. 

In the second half, CAU led by as many as 21 points after a Vigilance free throw with 12:06 remaining gave them a 50-29 lead.

It's the second consecutive game in which the Panthers have held a team under 60 points, and the third in the last five games in which opponents have scored less than 64 points.

"We pressed a little bit, but not much," Walker said.  "But we did some half-court trapping.  Akil [Douglas] and Davis are two bigs who really can get out and trap the ball, and when they trap, you can't see. And when we rotate up, it's hard to pass out."

Mitchell finished with 17 points and five rebounds, while Henry had 13 points, three rebounds, two assists, and a steal. Jamal Pollydore had ten points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal. Davis had seven points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal. Anthony "A.J." Williams had eight points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals.

Paine was led by Philip Garner who had 19 points, hitting 5-of-9 of his 3-point shots.

The Panthers take ten days off as Clark Atlanta students get ready for exams to close out the fall semester.  They then visit Shorter College on Monday, Dec. 11 before returning to L.S. Epps Gymnasium for home games on Saturday, December 16 against Central State and Monday, December 18 against Kentucky State.

"Still not happy, but happy that we're 8-1," Walker said. "Happy for the guys.  It's finals week so they can sit down and work on passing their classes.  And I'll go home and do a little recruiting and try to figure out how to get us better when we get back."