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ELON, N.C. – Lucas Troutman dunks shook the rim on several occasions, bringing the Alumni Gym capacity crowd to its feet as the Elon men’s basketball team rolled to an 84-62 victory over the visiting Georgia Southern Eagles in a Southern Conference showdown on Saturday night. Troutman came off the bench and dumped in a career-high 17 points while Drew Spradlin added a game-high 21 with his 15th double-figure performance of the season.

Elon (10-10, 4-5) won its second straight contest and improved to 7-2 at Alumni Gym this season. The 22-point victory is Elon’s largest-ever over a SoCon opponent since joining the league in 2003-04. Georgia Southern dropped to 4-17, 0-8 on the year.

The Phoenix was active on defense all night, forcing 24 Georgia Southern turnovers and racking up 10 steals. Senior guard Chris Long forced five miscues, tying his personal best, as Elon scored 33 points off Georgia Southern turnovers. Spradlin, who is averaging over 19 ppg against league opponents this year, led the squad on the boards as well with seven rebounds. Rookie Ryley Beaumont earned his first career start and contributed six points and five boards. Eleven Elon players scored in the victory.

Georgia Southern was led by Jelanie Hewitt’s 18 points. The guard knocked down 7-of-12 from the field.

“This was an energetic, exciting crowd,” commented Elon head coach Matt Matheny. “We are making Alumni Gym into a great home court which is a credit to our guys and this community.”

Troutman ignited the crowd early with two dunks, including a one-handed slam that gave the Phoenix a 20-11 advantage with 11:05 on the clock. The rookie scored eight of Elon’s first 20 points in the contest. The Phoenix’s stifling defense limited GSU to only one field goal over the next five minutes as Elon made good from the free throw line and pushed its lead to 28-14 with 7:27 to go. The Phoenix hit 13-of-17 from the charity stripe in the opening 20 minutes of action.

The Elon lead grew to 15 at the 2:29 mark before Hewitt knocked down a three-pointer that sparked a quick 7-0 run and trimmed the home team advantage to 36-28 with less than a minute to play. Elon answered and a Sebastian Koch trey to close the half put the Phoenix up 40-28.

The Phoenix pounded the glass in the first half, outgaining the Eagles, 23-15. Troutman and Spradlin each scored 11 points in the period.

Georgia Southern got off to a quick start to begin the final stanza, capitalizing on Phoenix turnovers and using an 8-3 run to make it a seven point game, 43-36, at the 17:38 mark. Elon wasn’t fazed and scored nine of the next 11 points, capped by a Troutman dunk off a Spradlin steal that made it 54-38 in favor of the home team.

Elon fed off the energized crowd and ran off a 25-4 streak to put the game out of reach. Beaumont sparked the crowd, throwing down a dunk off an offensive board and put Elon on top, 66-40, at the 9:11 mark. Georgia Southern would never get closer than 21 for the remainder of the contest.

Elon shot 41.2 percent from the field, scoring 34 points in the paint. The Phoenix got to the line 30 times compared to 21 attempts by Georgia Southern — Elon is 9-1 when it gets to the stripe more times than its opponent.

The Phoenix will look to continue its winning ways on the road as it heads to Birmingham, Ala. to challenge the Samford Bulldogs on Thursday, January 27 at 8 p.m.