Life Advances to 2nd Round with Monumental Victory Over Morris College

In the opening game of the Association of Independent Institutions (AII) Tournament, Life University (17-14) defeated Morris College (7-15) by a final score of 99-77, advancing to face the #1 seeded Mountain State University (23-7) on Saturday, March 3^rd at 4 p.m. in the Eagles Nest.

In the first half of Friday night's contest, Life seemed to come out a little sluggish as it took them until the 10:53 mark to take their first lead at 21-19. Life would rebound from their sluggish start, however, to go on and take a 47-40 lead into the locker room. It was a lead that they would never relinquish.

After Morris College's Justin Akieme's bucket cut Life's lead to 2 at 57-55 with over 13 minutes remaining in regulation, Life went on a colossal 42-22 run to close the game and end Morris College's season while keeping their own hopes alive.

"At this point in the season you are happy to still be playing," said Head Coach John Barrett on his team's win. "This is the playoffs and it is win or your season's over."

Life had 4 players in double-figures, led by the nation's fourth leading scorer PJ Meyers' 24 points to go along with 7 assists and 4 steals. Meyers was honored before the game for becoming Life's 8^th player in their storied history to eclipse the 1,000 point plateau for his career, and seemed motivated to display his full arsenal of talents in front of the large crowd gathered in the Eagles Nest.

Junior forward Andrew Woods pitched in a gritty 17 points and 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. Both senior guard Dajuwan "DC" Carter and junior guard Isaac Carr had 13 points each to round out Life's double-figure scorers.

One of the keys for Life's second-half surge was raising the tempo and forcing a lot of Morris College turnovers. In fact, Life forced 31 turnovers and held Morris College to a putrid 38 percent shooting for the game. It was not surprising then what Coach Barrett would say his team would need to do in tomorrow's second do-or-die game in as many days.

"The key for us is always going to be the tempo of the game and the amount of turnovers we can force," responded Coach Barrett when asked about Saturday's game against Mountain State. Life has played Mountain State twice already this season, dropping both contests by an average of 17.5 points per game.

"It's our speed against their size, and if we can make our press go and make them make mistakes, we will have a good chance to win the game." With Life coming off their 6^th win in their last 8 games, and 4 out of their last 5, they will sure have all the momentum they can on their side.