Despite playing shorthanded, Virginia Union’s men showed defensive consistency Saturday afternoon in a CIAA road game against Lincoln University (Pa.).

Bobby Gardner led the Panthers with a game-high 23 points. Noah Richardson-Keyes added 12 points and Tahj Harding finished with 11 as Virginia Union worked through lineup adjustments and leaned on contributions from several role players. 

The Panthers were without leading rebounder Elijah Scranton, a factor that affected their ability to control the boards. Freshmen Jeremiah Morris and Tyler Bell stepped into expanded roles off the bench, providing valuable minutes. 

“We talked about being consistent from one game to the next and defensively today we were consistent for 40 minutes,” said Jay Butler, VUU men’s basketball head coach. “I thought we could have done a better job on the boards, but we were missing our leading rebounder Elijah Scranton so that played a big part of not winning the war on the boards. Our two freshmen, Jeremiah Morris and Tyler Bell, they stepped up and gave us good minutes with the absence of Elijah today.” 

Virginia Union returned home Wednesday to host Winston-Salem State at Barco-Stevens Hall.