Atlanta, Ga.—The Panthers of Clark Atlanta University dominated Morehouse College in the battle for AUC supremacy  with a 77-64 victory Thursday at Forbes Arena.

“This was a great win for us tonight and our guys stepped up their game,” said CAU Head Coach Dale Brown.

A couple of splurges lifted the Panthers in the first half as they orchestrated their largest lead of the period at 10 behind the play of Antonio Burch who led the team with 10 points while hitting 2-of-3 from the behind the arc.

To open the second period, the Panthers quickly extended their 39-30 halftime lead to 13 points. A string of three-pointers by Morehouse (3-11, SIAC 3-9) kept it interesting, but the Panthers answered and opened their largest lead of the game at 14 with 8:20 left in the contest. After the Maroon Tigers cut the Panthers lead to five points at the 5:15 mark, it was all CAU down stretch. CAU’s Willis Brownlee’s monstrous dunk sent the Panther crowd into an uproar and put the exclamation point on the win.

Burch led the Panthers (8-9, SIAC 8-5) with a team-high 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field while Brandon O’Brien added 10.  Morehouse’s Shawn Allen led all scorers with 24 points and 11 rebounds followed by Daniyal Faquir and Cornex Nesbitt who chipped in 10 points each.

With the win, the Panthers make it three in a row and closed the gap on the series match-up led by Morehouse 13-8 over the last ten years. CAU wraps up its five-game road swing Saturday, Jan.  28, against Fort Valley State in an 8 p.m., match-up., before returning home Tuesday, Jan. 31, against Albany State.