Mesa, AZ- ACU got off to an early lead and stayed ahead for the entire game.  But the Firestorm had to hold on beat Benedictine at Mesa 71-69 on Tuesday night.

Game Info

• Game score: Arizona Christian - 71, Benedictine-Mesa – 69
• Records: Arizona Christian - 8-1, Benedictine-Mesa - 8-4
• NAIA Top 25 ranking: Arizona Christian – 12, Benedictine-Mesa - not ranked
• Location: Heap Gymnasium, Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

ACU Stats For The Day

• Shane Carney - 15 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists
• Terence Shelby, Jr. - 14 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists
• Al Burge - 13 points
• Shea Garland- 12 points, 6 rebounds

Inside the Box Score

• The Firestorm took a 7-0 lead to start the game and led for the entire contest, leading by as many as 18 points
• ACU outscored the Redhawks 37-27 in the first half and BenU outscored ACU in the second half 42-34
• ACU shot 45% from the field, 29% from 3 point range, and 53.3% on free throws

Thoughts from Coach Rutter

"I think we had some chances to extend the lead in the first half and open it up a bit, but we didn't close the half very well."

"Clearly I didn't do a great job preparing our guys for the game today.  We worked a lot defensively in the last week and we had some good stretches.  But I think we could have done some things offensively that would have helped us.  We never seemed to get in a rhythm."

"With so many new guys on the team, we knew we would be a work in progress. We are thankful to come away with the win as we continue to get better and try to figure things out."

Up Next

This weekend, the Firestorm play in the Cactus Classic hosted at Chandler Community College.  The first game is on Saturday against Rocky Mountain College at 12:00 pm.  The next game is against host the University of Providence on Monday at 12:00 pm.