HIGHLIGHTS
HUNTSVILLE | The University of Alabama in Huntsville men's basketball team kept its perfect record intact on Saturday, defeating visiting Benedict 64-52 at Kelly Court at Spragins Hall on the first day of the inaugural Gene Lusk Classic. The Chargers move to 4-0 on the season, while the Tigers slip to 0-2.
 
Preston Herring led the Chargers, recording crowd-electrifying dunks on his first five made attempts from the field en route to scoring a team-best 19 points on the strength of an 8-for-9 shooting night, and he was joined in double figures by Seab Webster who scored 12.
 
Webster also added a team-best five rebounds.
 
The Chargers led through much of the opening 20 minutes, building up a 12-point advantage by the 9:47 mark of the half, but Benedict – who was led on the night by Andrew Crawford's 14 points – closed the stanza on a 16-4 run to pull even with the hosts at 25-25 by the halftime break.
 
The momentum for the visiting Tigers carried into the second half as a Brennan Reynard bucket with 16:04 left in the contest provided his team with a 33-30 lead, but the advantage would be short-lived as Spencer Palmer hit yet another of his trademark clutch 3-pointers to tie the contest on the ensuing possession before assisting on Greg Gardner's triple that put the Chargers in front for good at 36-33 with 14:56 remaining.
 
The pair of treys sparked a 22-5 run that included a pair of 3s from sophomore Michael Gilmore, allowing the Charger lead to balloon to its largest point of the night at 6:20 after Gilmore's second shot from beyond the arc made it 52-38 while giving him nine points on the evening.
 
The Tigers pulled to within eight down the stretch but could find their way no closer in the closing minutes.
 
UAH shot 48.9 percent on the night to register a field goal percentage below 50 percent for the first time this season, and the Charger defensive effort held Benedict to a shooting night of 44.0 percent.
 
The Tigers held a 26-20 edge on the glass.
 
Returning to action on Sunday, the Chargers will wrap-up the busy pre-Thanksgiving slate at 4 p.m. against Stillman. The Tigers fell to Union in overtime by a 79-78 score.