Jalen Mitchell’s 23 Points Off the Bench Leads Clark Atlanta to Win Over Spring Hill

MOBILE, Alabama -- Jalen Mitchell came off the bench to score 20 of his 23 points in the second half as Clark Atlanta University won their seventh game in row in holding off Spring Hill College 68-66 in Mobile, Ala., Saturday.

The Panthers are now 12-1 overall, 6-0 and in first place in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference East Division. The consecutive wins mark equals a seven-game winning streak during their SIAC championship season last year.

The Panthers started out slow, falling behind by as many as eight points in the first half. They ended the half with a 10-3 run to go into the break trailing by only one at 33-32.

CAU fell behind by nine with 13:46 remaining, but Mitchell then took over. He scored 13 points, with a steal and a rebound, over the next nearly four minutes, giving CAU their first lead on his 3-pointer with 9:51 left to make the score 49-46.

Spring Hill fought back, taking a three-point lead on William Loyd's dunk with 4:32 left in the game. Akil Douglas followed with a dunk of his own, and Austin Donaldson hit a 3-pointer that put the Panthers up for good with 3:37 left.

Mitchell finished with 23 points, six rebounds, two steals and an assist, while Douglas had 15 points and eight rebounds. Donaldson had ten points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Brandon Fischer led Spring Hill with 15 points as the Badgers fell to 2-10 this season, 0-4 in the SIAC.

Head coach Darrell Walker said his Panthers showed a little rust from not playing a game since Dec. 18 because of the Christmas break.

"It was another one of those 'grind-it-out' kind of games for us," Walker said. "We had a long layoff and we were a little off tonight. It's hard to say that when defensively you hold a team to 66 points. Spring Hill really played us hard. But we have some things to work on this week."

The Panthers return to L.S. Epps Gymnasium Thursday, Jan. 4 when they host Lane College at 8 p.m. That game can be viewed live, via webstream, at www.mybcsn.net/cau.

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