Upland, Ind. — The Aquinas men's basketball team started off slow on the road in the program's first away contest of the season, but recovered and built up a sizable lead in the second half to pull out a 70-60 win Wednesday night (Nov. 2) in Upland, Ind. For a second straight season, the Saints have won their opening two games. The last time AQ started a campaign 3-0, however, was the 2007-08 season when Aquinas won its first 10 games.

The Saints went down 9-2 out of the gates in the first four minutes on Wednesday. Taylor's Jeff Clayton powered down a dunk and Gavin Yoon hit a triple on the Trojans' next possession to gain the early momentum. Aquinas regrouped to take its first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by Tommy Gregwer at the 12:29 mark of the first half. It was one of two triples Gregwer hit in the contest. Both teams hit seven 3-pointers in the game with the Saints taking 20 attempts and the Trojans taking 26 shots from deep.

After AQ took the lead, neither team could gain an advantage over four points before the end of the first half. The Saints led 30-28 at halftime following a jumper made by Payton Harley with 1:10 remaining in the half.

Aquinas went on a 15-4 run to start the second half with four different scorers chipping in points. For the game, Aquinas had 10 different scorers get on the score sheet. Leading the way was Andrew Larson with 20 points, followed by Gabe Overway (13) and Jared Dugener (11), who also led the team in rebounding with seven boards. Overway scored seven of his 13 points during that 15-4 run.

A 3-pointer made by Larson with 6:12 remaining pushed AQ's lead back up to 60-47 — tying its largest lead of the night. Taylor, however, manage to claw back within four points at 64-60 when its leading scorer Jason Hubbard, who finished with 19 points, sunk a triple with just over three minutes to play. Preserving the win, AQ's defense stepped up and didn't allow the Trojans to score the rest of the game.

Dugener, Menalito McGee and Donovan Brown-Boyd all made free throws down the stretch to ice the game and help the Saints win 70-60. AQ went 11-for-11 at the charity stripe.

Aquinas shot 49.1% from the floor (26-for-53) and outrebounded Taylor 33-27.

The Saints return to action this weekend with a pair of neutral site games in Rochester, Mich., against Mount Vernon Nazarene on Friday (Nov. 4) at 7:30 p.m. and Saint Francis (Ind.) on Saturday (Nov. 5) at 4:30 p.m.