The Centre men's basketball team jumped out to an early lead and cruised to an 85-71 win over Southern Athletic Association rival Birmingham-Southern on Sunday in Danville, Ky.

Freshman Matt Gump (Bellefontaine, Ohio) led a balanced Centre attack with 17 points, while Tyler Wesley (Crestwood, Ky.) added 15 points, Collin Lopez (Louisville, Ky.) 14 and Donovan Whiteside 13. Josh Karsner (Frankfort, Ky.) chipped in nine points with a game-high 10 rebounds. Griffin Schamp led Birmingham-Southern with 20 points.

The Colonels opened the scoring on a 3-pointer by Whiteside and never trailed in the game. Midway through the first half, Gump scored five straight points in a 10-2 run that put Centre up 24-11. The Panthers would cut the margin back down to seven points at the 7:30 mark, but Lopez, who went 4-of-7 from outside, sank two 3-pointers in a 12-2 run that put Centre up 39-22.

The Colonels took a 50-33 lead to halftime, and would not allow Birmingham-Southern back within single digits the rest of the way. Centre continued to pull away and went on to lead by as many as 20 points after a Wesley layup with 9:50 to play.

Centre shot 54 percent (27-of-50) from the field to Birmingham-Southern's 40 percent (24-of-60), and shot 45 percent (9-of-20) from outside, compared with the Panthers' 30 percent (7-of-23). The Colonels outrebounded Southern 36-33 and turned the ball over 17 times to the Panthers' 16.

After picking up its fourth straight victory, Centre improves to 10-3 on the season and 3-0 in SAA play. Birmingham-Southern falls to 7-5 overall and 1-2 in the conference. The Colonels travel to take on Sewanee on Saturday.