Elon, N.C. - The Elon men's basketball team outscored Washington & Lee by 25 points in the second half en route to an 87-62 victory over the visiting Generals in the first exhibition contest of 2009-10 season.

Four Phoenix players scored in double figures, including senior TJ Douglas and sophomore Terrance Birdette who came off the bench to dump in 16 points apiece.

"Obviously we are pleased with the outcome," said first-year Elon head coach Matt Matheny. "I thought we played stretches of good basketball and we accomplished all three of our goals for tonight - get better, have fun and play to win." 

Elon forward Adam Constantine connected on 7-of-11 to lead the Phoenix with 17 points.

Elon shot 45.8 percent from long range, led by Douglas and Birdette who knocked down a combined 7-of-10 from three-point territory.

Sophomore Josh Bonney dished out a game-high eight assists and tacked on four steals. Nine Phoenix players saw double-figure minutes as the Elon bench contributed 48 points in the win.

While Elon didn't trail in the first half, the Generals kept it tight. With the game knotted at seven at the 15:48 mark, the Phoenix outscored W&L 19-9 over the next 10 minutes to open up its biggest lead of the half at 26-16.

The Phoenix advantage hovered around 10 points until the Generals went on 10-0 run of their own to close out the half. Back-to-back triples by White helped spark the streak as the buzzer sounded with the score tied, 32-32.

A J.D. Ey dunk at the 18:08 mark in the second half gave the visitors the lead for the first time of the game at 37-36.

The Generals stretched the advantage to as many as four, before Douglas and Constantine combined for the next 10 Elon points to help the Phoenix retake a lead it would never relinquish at 46-40. Elon forced six W&L turnovers and outscored the Generals 41-22 over the final 13 minutes of the contest to earn the 87-62 victory.

For the game, Elon outrebounded W&L 38-26, including a 16-5 edge on the offensive glass. The Phoenix scored 22 second-chance points and racked up 24 tallies of off 18 W&L miscues.

"I think the story of tonight was our defense," commented Birdette. "It was obvious that when our defense plays well, we can create pretty good offense."

Elon will return to action when it hosts its final exhibition contest of the preseason against Greensboro College on Monday, November 9 at 7 p.m. in Alumni Gym.