The Elon University men's basketball team was able to have a little fun. After a tough loss to Butler University three days before, it was needed.

The Phoenix defeated Div. III Bridgewater College Eagles 95-51 Tuesday night in its home opener.

"It was just a lot of fun," said Elon junior forward Lucas Troutman. "We came out and had certain things we wanted to work on and certain things we wanted to get better at that coach had mentioned before the game, and we came out and attacked them."

Elon junior guard Jack Isenbarger led all scorers with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting, hitting 5-of-9 from three-point range. Junior guard Sebastian Koch had 18 points, hitting 6-of-7 from beyond the arc, while Troutman (17 points, five rebounds) and junior forward Ryley Beaumont (15 points, four rebounds) added to the total.

The Phoenix was aided by hot shooting, particularly in the first half. Elon shot 62.5 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, 10-18 from three-point range. Elon head coach Matt Matheny referred to them as "lightning bolts."

One thing Matheny was particularly pleased with was the Phoenix's aggressiveness, something he said was lacking against Butler.

"We wanted to be aggressive," he said. "A lot of times what I’ll say is we wanted to play on our toes. At Butler, in the first half, we were on our heels. On the second half, we were on our toes, we played much better. We made the same mistakes in the first half up there as we did in the second half, but we were aggressive doing it. What we wanted to do tonight was play on our toes for 40 minutes, be aggressive for 40 minutes."

After getting out-rebounded 39-20 against the Bulldogs in Indianapolis, Elon eked out a 38-30 advantage on the boards, something Koch said was a key point of emphasis.

"That was one of the main things that we as a team wanted to achieve today and work on was rebounding and boxing the other guys out and getting offensive rebounds," he said. "We didn’t get a lot at Butler, so we focused a lot on that."

Bridgewater started the game with a 5-2 lead just 1:07 into the first half, but a three-point play by Troutman punctuated a 22-8 run over the next 5:54. It was all Phoenix from there, as a halftime lead of 58-28 was expanded, with the help of four three-pointers from Koch in the first six minutes of the second half.

"I just felt like I couldn’t miss at that point," Koch said. "Once I hit the first one, it felt like throwing rocks in the ocean. I just was hot."

He and the rest of the Phoenix. The five starters - Koch, Troutman, Isenbarger, Beaumont and sophomore guard Austin Hamilton - hit 61 percent of their shots, 58 percent from beyond the arc to pace Elon, who shot 52.5 percent from the field for the game.

It was another significant improvement in a night of improvements for Matheny's squad.

"We wanted to improve from Saturday’s performance," the head coach said. "We did that Sunday in practice, we did that Monday in practice and we got better today."

Koch added that improvement was the goal of tonight's game against the Eagles.

"It was a special game, I’d say, for us to improve," he said. "When we went to Butler, we didn’t play the way we wanted to play. Today was all about improving ourselves as a team and working on the mistakes we made last week at Butler. Every day we try to get better. We got better Sunday in practice, Monday in practice, and we also wanted to get better today during this game and mainly focus on rebounding and just sticking together as a team and working together."

The Eagles had no chance against the aggressive Phoenix. Bridgewater shot just 33.3 percent from the field and committed 25 turnovers. Junior guard Tavis Stapleton had nine points to lead the Eagles. Sophomore forward Ed Reddick contributed seven points and five rebounds off the bench.

Coming up next, the Phoenix will host the Mainland portion of the EA Sports Maui Invitational, as Coppin State University, Colgate University and Florida Atlantic University will visit campus Saturday and Sunday for four games in a tournament format. Elon will face Colgate at 2 p.m. Saturday.

"I just think it’s going to be a huge opportunity for us," Troutman said. "It’s going to be a lot of fun for us to participate in the Maui Tournament."

Game Notes

  • It was not a normal college basketball game. While it was the regular season home opener for the Phoenix, it was an exhibition game for Bridgewater, whose season opens Nov. 16 against Ferrum College, who Elon faced in an exhibition last Saturday.
  • Elon freshman guard Tanner Samson contributed eight points and six assists in 23 minutes his first collegiate home game. He started against Butler, but came off the bench and played tied for the second most minutes on the team.
  • Each member of the Phoenix played at least two minutes in the game. Freshman walk-on guard Sam Hershberger contributed one point and one assist in two minutes at the end of the game, while senior guard John Moody had two points and two rebounds in four minutes.
  • After leading the team in scoring with 13 points against Butler, Hamilton scored just four points in 25 minutes against Bridgewater, but grabbed four rebounds, dished out three assists and had three steals.