SALISBURY, N.C. — The Catawba College men's basketball team suffered its first home loss of the season Wednesday night against South Atlantic Conference leader and eighth-ranked Anderson, 92-81, to snap the Catawba Indians' 13-game winning streak at Goodman Arena.
TEAM STATS
- Catawba (18-7, 13-6 SAC) shot 49.2% from the floor, marking the first time it had lost while going 46% or better in 10 games; Anderson (23-2, 17-2 SAC) posted a 59.2% clip, unseating its January field goal percentage as the best by a Catawba Indian opponent in 2025-26
- The Trojans flushed 9-of-17 (52.9%) from three-point land as Catawba also had a strong day with 10 buckets on 24 attempts (41.7%)
- The Catawba Indians went 13-for-21 (61.9%) at the charity stripe while allowing Anderson to get to the line 34 times, on which it made 25 (73.5%)
- Anderson out-rebounded Catawba by a 32-26 margin and had fewer fouls by a 26-20 difference, but lost the turnover battle 18-15
- Catawba swatted the Trojans six times as Anderson recorded just a pair of blocks as a team
INDIVIDUAL STATS
- Making back-to-back games as the Catawba Indians' leading scorer, Ibra Athie racked up 14 points with four rebounds and a couple of steals
- Jordan Simpson drained three shots from beyond the arc en route to a 13-point game
- Carson Daniel tallied 12 points with a team-best three steals as well as three assists, while Jashaun Hawkins came off the bench for 10 points and two swipes
- Justin Banks put up nine points and swatted a whopping four Trojan shots, moving into a tie for fourth in program history for career blocks (139)
- Chase Daniel dished out seven assists, one shy of tying his season best set last Saturday at Emory & Henry, during a six-point performance
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
- After early layups by Athie and Banks that helped Catawba earn a brief edge, Anderson called up a 11-2 surge for a swift momentum change
- The blue and white recovered quickly, taking less than two minutes to cut the deficit back to one possession where it remained until the 11-minute mark
- With swift cuts and solid rebounding, AU slowly developed its lead into a magnitude of eight at the under-eight media break
- Catawba kept pounding on the door and succeeded, erasing the gap using five points from Athie and a three-point swish from Simpson that made it 35-35 with 2:43 left in the half
- Rashawn Inglemon and Banks traded triples as the Trojans held a 42-40 lead with six seconds to go, but a Sentinel Moore and-one conversion allowed AU to possess a five-point advantage at halftime
Second Half
- Simpson found paydirt from deep and Chase Daniel laid in a bucket to offset four Anderson free throws to open the half, keeping the gap at four; following a 7-2 run from AU, a second flurry for Catawba shrunk the difference to five
- The Catawba Indians fell victim to another 11-2 rush by the Trojans that saw Inglemon hit twice from three-point range
- A tit-for-tat streak midway through the period kept Catawba from meaningfully chipping away as the hosts finally brought the deficit back down to single digits with five minutes left
- To cap a 7-0 swoop, Carson Daniel buried a three-ball that got Goodman Arena on its feet, but AJ Wright Jr. silenced the crowd with a bullseye from downtown on the opposite end
- AU would have closed proceedings on a 10-2 run, but Simpson splashed a trey with 33 seconds to play to cut the final score to an 11-point split at 92-81
UP NEXT
Catawba matches up with Mars Hill on Saturday, Feb. 21, for its home finale and Senior Day. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m.
