Phoenix, AZ- A stifling defense and solid offense allowed Arizona Christian to shut down Benedictine- Mesa 100-50 on Tuesday evening.  Allowing just 30% shooting while knocking down 53.1%, the Firestorm were in cruise control from the beginning.  Senior Chris Sterling scored 24 points with Junior Al Brown adding 16 points.

The Firestorm (3-0) opened with leads of 6-0 in the first five minutes and then 14-1 in just two more minutes.  For the first seven plus minutes, the Redhawks (3-4) were 0-8 from the field with seven turnovers.

ACU never looked back and they lead the entire game.

By halftime, Arizona Christian built a 49-13 lead thanks in large part to Benedictine-Mesa shooting just 13.6% (3-22) from the field and 0% (0-9) from three point range.  In the first 20 minutes, the Redhawks had more turnovers than points- 15-13.  For perspective, Sterling had 18 points by himself in the first half for ACU.

Head Coach Jeff Rutter described the first half this way, "I thought our guys set the tone defensively and took them out of some things and got us off to a great start.  And that was really the difference in the game.  We are getting better defensively, and I'm proud of the focus that our guys had tonight."

Brown had a great second half as he scored 11 of his 16 points after the break.  Senior Shy McClelland had the makings of a triple-double type night with 10 points and a team high seven rebounds and five assists.

In the end, 12 of the 14 suited Firestorm scored with that same ratio pulling down a rebound.

Reflecting on the game as a whole, Coach Rutter stated, "That's a great team win tonight!  Benedictine is a good team and will win a lot of games this year.  They are much better than hey showed tonight.  Sterling is really shooting the ball well.  These past two games he did a nice job defensively and rebounded well... he can be pretty special when he does those things."

Rutter added, "Coach Matt O'Meara did a nice job preparing our guys for Benedictine tonight."

The Firestorm will now not play again until the Friday after Thanksgiving when they host Trinity International at 7:30 pm.