MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner (1-0) struck early, hard and often in this evening's season opener routing Selma University (0-1) 97-62 on Day 1 of the annual Jimmy Faulkner Classic here at Tine Davis Gymnasium. 

Faulkner was without a pair of crucial starters tonight in all-SSAC guard Di'mar Hill and 6-foot-10-inch transfer Christian Kennedy, who are both batting nagging injuries. 

Despite the lack of additional weaponry, the home team struggled little with the Bulldogs.The Eagles never trailed and Selma managed to tie the outing just once at the 3-3 mark in the lopsided affair.

The home team assaulted the scoreboard right out of the gate behind the hot hands of Lucas Luttrell and Logan Jozwiak who combined for Faulkner's first 20 points of the night.

The duo was nothing short of impressive as their efficiency wreaked havoc on the Selma defense from virtually every square inch of the floor.

Luttrell led the home team with 17 points and was 7-for-9 overall in the contest and 3-for-5 from 3-point territory. The junior also had three rebounds.

Jozwiak offered up 16 points and eight boards against the Bulldogs and was 5-for-8 in the event while landed 2-of-4 from behind the arc. Joswiak left the game in the second half with a knee injury.

Nick Barnes had 14 points for Faulkner and tallied nine of them on three consecutive 3-pointers in a 58-second span to cap the team's scoring summary. He also had five rebounds.

Other major contributors were Daniel Ogunseye with 13 points and Rene Scott who added 11 points, five assists and a pair of rebounds.

Jose Jimenez helped control the offensive tempo alongside Scott and had seven points and six rebounds.

"We did some good things offensively and we shot the ball pretty good, in streaks," said head coach Scott Sanderson after the game. "We still have a ways to go defensively in rebounding the basketball. We haven't been a very good rebounding team the last couple of years and we have some work to do there."

When asked bout tomorrow's matchup with Oakwood University (Ala.), Sanderson said that he's expecting a physical battle and believes that his short bench could be a major contributing factor in the outcome.

"I coach better with all of my players," Sanderson said with a slight chuckle. "I just hope we don't get another guy hurt. We already have two probable starters out right now and Logan went down pretty hard tonight in the second half and early on he was terrific. Hopefully he'll get healed up and be able to go. Oakwood beat Talladega today who's ranked seventh in the country so they're going to be tough. It's unfortunate that we have these guys out, but it's also an opportunity for some of these other guys to step up and get a lot of playing time like they did tonight."

Faulkner takes on Oakwood tomorrow at 7 p.m.