LEXINGTON, Va. – It was a hard-fought first road win of the season for American University men's basketball, as the Eagles took care of business in a 77-69 victory at VMI on Saturday afternoon. The win snapped a three-game skid for AU, who will play two more non-conference road games this month before starting Patriot League play in early January.
 
Notable Numbers

• Senior Matt Rogers scored 19 points to lead AU, and junior Elijah Stephens posted a season-high 18 points along with five rebounds and four assists.
• Rogers hit 7-of-13 from the field, 3-of-3 at the line, and recorded two blocks.
• The first-half leader for the Eagles was senior Lorenzo Donadio with 13 points, and he finished the game with 15.
• Senior Lincoln Ball led AU with six rebounds for the second game in a row.
• The Eagles shot 53 percent from the field compared to 39 percent for the Keydets.

First Half

• Strong three-point shooting gave the Eagles a big lead early. Freshman Matt Mayock, Donadio and Rogers all hit long-range shots in the first three minutes for a 9-0 lead, and Rogers hit a pair of free throws to make it 11-0 at 16:16.
• AU kept VMI off the board until 15:30, and remained in the lead the entire half despite a late push from the Keydets.
• Donadio went on to make all three of his three-point attempts, with his third putting AU up 19-11.
• The largest lead for the Eagles was 12 points on two occasions, the second at 30-18 with 7:12 left in the half.
• From there, VMI used a 9-0 run to make it a three-point game, 30-27 at 2:20.
• The Keydets came no closer, and the Eagles closed out the half outscoring VMI 4-1 with a late bucket from Stephens, taking a 36-30 lead into halftime.
• American shot 54 percent to VMI's 38 percent in the half, and won the battle on the glass 20-12.

Second Half

• It remained a one or two-possession game for the first 12 minutes of the second half, with two ties and a brief lead by the Keydets.
• After taking a 40-35 lead on a jumper from Rogers at the 18-minute mark, American went cold from the field for over five minutes.
• The Eagles' defense limited the damage, but VMI took its first lead of the game, 42-41 at 13:05.
• Rogers ended the drought at the 12-minute mark with his second three-pointer to give AU back the lead, 44-42, but the Keydets would go on to tie the game at 44-all and 47-all.
• Stephens then scored five points to start what became a 14-1 run that put the Eagles in the lead for good.
• Sophomore Geoff Sprouse hit a pair of free throws at the 5-minute mark to cap the run, giving AU its largest lead of 13 points, 61-48.
• VMI came back within seven points, but got no closer until a three-pointer with 14 seconds left.
• Rogers and Ball made back-to-back buckets for a 63-54 lead at 1:54, and sophomore Jermaine Ballisager Webb dunked it for an 11-point, 67-56 lead soon after.
• In the final minute, the Eagles went 10-for-12 at the free-throw line to hold off a final charge from VMI, as the Keydets went 4-for-5 from the field in that stretch.

Up Next

• The Eagles will take close to two weeks off before traveling to Virginia Tech for a 5 p.m. contest on Thursday, Dec. 21.

Keep Up with Us

• For the latest on American University Men's Basketball, stay tuned to AUEagles.com and follow the team on Twitter (@AU_MBasketball), Facebook (/AU.MBasketball) and Instagram (@au_mbasketball).