MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner flew into first place in the Southern States Athletic Conference Thursday night with another offensive eruption in a 105-88 victory over No. 20 William Carey in Tine Davis Gymnasium.
The Eagles (19-7, 13-3 SSAC) trailed close behind for the first six minutes of the game, never trailing by more than one possession. At the 13:41 mark in the first half,
Kamal Green II flushed a layup to tie it at 17. Faulkner never trailed again as it sparked a 15-0 run over the next two minutes with 5-5 shooting and a couple of steals to lead 30-17 with 11:31 left.
William Carey (22-3, 12-3 SSAC), who had lost just once in its last 16 games–including a 10-point win at home over the Eagles, fought back to make it a two point game twice around the six minute mark in the opening interval but buckets from
KJ Rogers and
Jordyn Turner-Durley answered each one-possession question.
The then No. 1 in the West kept it close and with three minutes to go in the first, Troy Dunn hit a layup to make it a two point game for the Crusaders but
Tanner Vogel locked in the first leg of his eighth double-double in the last 11 games with a layup to push it back to two possessions before closing out the half with the last four points from the stripe to take a 52-44 lead into halftime.
Faulkner saw the lead evaporate a little to start the second half, five times seeing the advantage cut to two, but with 11:07 to go in the game, Rogers took over as the Eagles mounted a 19-4 run as the St. Thomian scored 11 and assisted a three from
Gabriel Rivera to blow the game wide open at 87-70 with seven minutes to play.
The 105 points is the fourth time in the last eight games Faulkner has broken the century mark, tying the 2020-21 season's total number of times breaking 100.
Vogel continued to dominate William Carey going off for 21 points and 18 rebounds. In the two meetings with Crusaders, the Aussie has 47 points and 33 rebounds.
Rogers ended the night with 25 points, three assists and two steals. Turner-Durley and Green finished with 17 and 15, respectively.
The top five scorers for the Eagles, including
Francois-Dony Baba's nine points, combined for 23-26, or 88.5 percent inside the arc and 19-22 from the stripe.
On the glass Faulkner doubled the William Carey total with a 42-21 advantage, the second largest rebounding margin of the season for Faulkner.
Faulkner's top spot in the SSAC standings sees an immediate defense as it sits a half game ahead of Loyola (20-5, 12-3 SSAC) who comes to town Saturday. Both teams are riding a five game win streak ahead of the winner-takes-first matchup at 2 p.m. It also will serve as senior day with the ceremony set for between the women's and the men's games.
