Alfred, Elmira and Naz Hold Off Opponents
NAZARETH 71, RIT 66
Sophomore
Josh Gillard and junior
Nick Nadeau each connected for career-high point totals Friday as Nazareth defeated RIT 71-66 in a consolation game of the Wendy's College Classic at the University of Rochester Palestra.
Seeded seventh going into the tournament, Nazareth evened its overall record to 2-2, while the sixth-seeded Tigers dropped to 5-2. The Golden Flyers will play again Saturday in the fifth-place game against the winner of Friday's second game between Brockport and Hobart. Saturday's game is at Geneseo at 3 p.m.
Gillard led all scorers with 18 points with four three-point baskets. Nadeau and junior
Maurice Mills each added 16 points. Sophomore
Denzell Jackson had a team-high seven rebounds.
Nazareth never trailed Friday and led by as many as 16 points in the first half before RIT rallied to within three points, 66-63, late in the game. Mills and Nadeau each sank a pair of free throws in the closing minute and
Dan Morse also made one free throw to preserve Nazareth's win.
After a 10-2 first-half scoring run that included three-point shots by Gillard and Nadeau, Nazareth led 31-15 with 5:20 left in the half. Eventually Nazareth settled for a 37-31 lead at the break as Gillard scored 13 of his points, including three three-pointers.
A 21-12 scoring run to open the second half pushed the lead back to double digits at 58-43 following two free throws by Nadeau with 8:36 left. RIT then scored the next seven points -- a three-pointer by Joe Stortini (17 points) and four free throws by A.J. Horde (14 points) -- and eventually used a 20-8 scoring run to claw within three, 66-63, with 1:10 to go.
The Golden Flyers struggled a bit from the free throw line, hitting 27 of 43 attempts (62.8 percent), but Mills calmly sank a pair with :51 to go and Morse made one more with :27 to go, followed by two from Nadeau with :13 left.
Nazareth went 19 for 48 (39.6 percent) from the field and outrebounded the Tigers 42-34.
ALFRED 66, Valley Forge Christian College 59
The Alfred University men's basketball (5-1, E8 0-0) team topped Valley Forge Christian College, 66-59, in the first round of the Gallaudet Holiday Tournament late Friday evening.
Julian Reinhart led the Saxons with 20 points and eight rebounds on the way to the Saxons second win in a row and fifth on the season. Reinhart shot lights-out making 6-of-7 (85.7%) from the field and 8-of-12 (75.0%) from the free-throw line on the night.
The Saxons started the game out on top taking a 9-2 lead before the Patriots looked to come back to take the lead with 9:14 to go in the half. The lead for Valley Forge was short-lived with the Saxons only falling behind by four. With 5:56 left in the first half the Saxons reassumed a lead with a layup in the paint by
Ryan Mahon. With the lead in hand, the Saxons held onto a small margin into the half. As the teams headed to the locker room for the intermission the scoreboard read, 29-27 in favor the Saxons.
In the opening minutes of the second half the Saxons started out hot again, taking a 9-point lead, however it was erased only five minutes later. Yet again, the Saxons gripped the lead and were able to create an 11-point margin with 2:39 to go in the game. This time AU would not let Valley Forge crawl back and secured a 7-point victory, 66-59.
Echoing the game from Tuesday, it was a full team effort to secure the win for the Saxons with 11 players scoring on the night. Sophomore
Tyler Seelman had 10 points and two blocks while
Dalton Walsh anchored the paint for AU with nine points and 11 rebounds. Freshman forward,
Kevin McFall, dished the ball around the court from inside leading the Saxons with three assists.
ELMIRA 76, SUNY Canton 68 (OT)
It took an extra five minutes of play for the Elmira College men's basketball team to hand Clarkson University their first loss of the season as the Soaring Eagles took down the Golden Knights, 76-68, in overtime Friday evening. The Purple and Gold were paced by three players in double-figures, with
Neil Randolph'15 and
Justin Henderson '16 each leading all scorers with 24 points.
Randolph had his best game of the 2014-15 season, scoring 24 points on an efficient 9-of-13 shooting, including 4-of-5 from behind the arc, and pulling down six rebounds in the win. Henderson got the call to start tonight's game, his first career start, and did not disappoint, setting career-highs with 24 points and six rebounds. The junior guard, who wears the number-23 jersey formally worn by former EC marksman
Josh Keys '14, channeled his inner-Keys and knocked-down 8-of-10 shots from distance, including a perfect 7-of-7 in regulation. He also came up with arguably the biggest shot of his career, as his three-pointer with 2:17 remaining in overtime put Elmira ahead, 69-66.
The other Soaring Eagle in double-figures was
Gino Leonardi '16, who played a game-high 42 minutes for the Purple and Gold. Leonardi had an off-night shooting the ball, going 3-of-14 from the field and 0-of-7 from three-point range, but he went 6-of-8 from the charity stripe, with four of those made free throws coming in the overtime period. Leonardi also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds and tied for the team-high with five assists in EC's victory.
Brian McDonald'15 only scored four points, but he filled up the stat sheet, grabbing four rebounds and recording a career-high five assists.
The Purple and Gold started strong against the Golden Knights, hitting five of their first nine shots to take a 13-9 advantage with 14:06 to play in the first half. Clarkson would respond, however, using a 9-2 run to take a three point lead, 18-15, just four minutes later. The Golden Knight run would continue as Clarkson stretched it out to a 29-23 advantage with 1:56 remaining in the first half. Henderson's fourth three-pointer of the half made it just a three point game, which was Elmira's deficit at the half as they trailed 31-28.
EC retook the lead at 36-35 just over two minutes into the second half after Henderson hit his second consecutive three-pointer, and Elmira maintained that lead for nearly the entirety of the second half. The lead hovered around four points for the majority of the half, but back-to-back three-pointers from Randolph with just over five minutes to play gave EC their largest lead of the game, eight points at 60-52.
The Soaring Eagles held onto their eight-point lead, 62-54, with 1:21 to play, but Clarkson would not go away as the Golden Knights cut EC's lead to four points with 45 seconds left. A pair of Leonardi free throws pushed it back to six points, but two empty trips to the free throw line allowed Clarkson to make it a three-point game with six seconds left on the clock. The Golden Knights dribbled the length of the floor and Clarkson's John Coleman knocked down a three-pointer with 0.2 seconds left on the clock to tie the score and send the game to overtime.
Clarkson opened the overtime period with a basket to make it 66-64, but a quick 5-0 run, which was capped-off by Henderson's eighth three-pointer of the game, put the Purple and Gold up 69-66 with 2:17 to play. EC went 5-of-8 from the free throw line in the final minute of play to seal the 76-68 victory.
SUNY Canton 78, UTICA 67
St. Lawrence 78, ITHACA 74
Geneseo 63, ST. JOHN FISHER 55