Wins for Elmira, Alfred, Ithaca and Utica Men on Friday
UTICA 82, Houghton 62
UTICA, NY – The Utica College men's basketball team got back to its winning ways with an 82-62 victory Friday night against Houghton College in Empire 8 action at the Clark Athletic Center. The Pioneers were led by
Conor Maisch (Kingston, NY/John A. Coleman) who netted a game-high 17 points on 5-of-6 from downtown.
UC moves its overall record to 6-9 while improving to 2-4 in E8 play and remains home to welcome Nazareth College to the Clark Center on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m.
Utica opened an early lead and never looked back taking a 23 point lead, 50-27, to the break. Maisch and
Robert Tutein (Nanuet, NY/Nanuet) led the push with 11 each in the first 20 minutes of action while
Aaron Nevins (Buffalo, NY/Canisius) facilitated seven assists along with six points.
UC continued its momentum into the second half as it worked its way to a commanding, 35 point, advantage just over seven minutes into the final period. The Pioneers led 69-54 with 12:53 showing on the board and went on to close out the match by 20, 82-62.
The Highlanders fall to 5-9 on the season including a 1-5 mark in conference play. HC returns to the court on Tuesday when it travels to Ithaca College to challenge the Bombers for an 8 p.m. at Ben Light Gymnasium.
ELMIRA 85, Hartwick 73
ONEONTA, NY – Visiting Elmira took a lead with just over 11 minutes left to go in the first half and never relinquished it as the Soaring Eagles handed the Hartwick men's basketball team an 85-73 loss in Empire 8 action Friday night at Lambros Arena. The loss drops the Hawks to 8-6 overall and 3-2 in the Empire 8 Conference. The Soaring Eagles improve to 6-7 overall and vault the Hawks in the league standings with a 4-2 mark.
Hartwick's Jake Sinicki (Endicott, NY/Maine-Endwell) led four Hawks in double figures with 16 points. He also added nine rebounds. Matt Wilson (Shelton, CT/Franklin & Marshall College)registered a double-double with 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Joey Lufkin (Argyle, NY/Argyle) notched 14 points andMatt Petruccione (Saratoga Springs, NY/Bishop Maginn) added 10.
Elmira was led by David Borelli's game-high 18 points. Gino Leonardi and Oladapo Badmos each scored 14 points and Neil Randolph chipped in with 12.
Hartwick jumped out to a five-point lead, 10-5, on a Sinicki three-pointer just over three minutes into the contest. Borelli would put EC in front, 15-13, on a jumper but Justin Pratt's (North Kingstown, RI/North Kingstown) three made it 16-15 Hawks.
EC quickly retook the advantage but a pair of Petruccione free throws made it 18-17 Hartwick with 11:48 left in the half. Unfortunately for the Hawks, it would be their final lead of the night. Two straight Elmira three-pointers gave the visitors an eight-point edge, 32-24, before 'Wick cut it to four, 36-32, with just over two minutes left. Buckets from Borelli and a layup from Justin Henderson at the halftime horn put the Soaring Eagles up at the break, 42-33.
In the second half, the Hawks brought the deficit to four three times in the first four minutes but EC would open up a nine-point lead, 53-44 on a Hayden Harkins three. Another trey from Leonardi made it a double-digit lead for EC with 8:10 to go.
Another three-point basket gave Elmira a 72-61 advantage with just over two minutes to play but two Lufkin free throws and a Glenn Gavan (Newton, NJ/Pope John XXIII) three for Hartwick cut the margin to six, 72-66, with 1:31 remaining. An old-fashioned three-point play from Leonardi triggered a 13-7 run to close the game for the Soaring Eagles. EC hit all nine of its free-throw attempts in the final 1:22 to secure the victory.
The Soaring Eagles would make 55.2% (32-for-58) of their shots in the contest with the Hawks making 41.7% (25-for-60). Both teams connected on nine three's. The Hawks out-rebounded EC 33-32 in the game with the Soaring Eagles' bench outscoring the Hawks' by a 49-19 margin.
ALFRED 85, Nazareth 76
ROCHESTER, NY—The Alfred University men's basketball team got back on track in the Empire 8 with an 85-76 victory over Nazareth College on Friday evening.
The Saxons were able to capture their fourth Empire 8 win on Friday by taking advantage of points off turnovers against Naz. AU outscored the Golden Flyers 30-14 off turnovers and held a slight advantage of 30-26 in points in the paint.
The first half began as a scrum, with both teams struggling to put up points. By the fifth minute the score was still 5-5, but Naz would eventually jump out to grab a lead. Naz, holding a lead just slightly out of the reach of the Saxons, owned approximately the next 11 minutes of the game.
However, senior forward Dalton Walsh (Stockton, NY/Cassadega Valley) and AU had a different idea going into the half time break. With 1:43 to go before the intermission, Walsh hit a layup in the paint to grab the first AU lead since the opening shot in the game. Maurice Mills of Naz then made 1-of-2 free throws to deadlock the game at 28 with only 29 seconds to go. On the missed second free throw, Walsh ripped down a defensive board and sent the ball down the court to find Kevin McFall (Hatboro, PA/Upper Moreland) who broke the tie with a layup and helped the Saxons carry a 30-28 lead into the half.
In the second half neither team had any issues scoring with AU shooting 19-of-38 (50%) from the field and Naz hitting 18-18 free throws. Three Alfred players scored over 10 points in the second half alone. Walsh notched 15 points, Tyler Seelman (Lorton, Va/Hayfield Secondary) had 14 points, and Julian Reinhart (Hornell, NY/Hornell) had 11 points.
The Saxons came out in the second half and posted some solid offense and grabbed a game-high 20-point lead with 13:21 to play in the game. Just as the game seemed to be over, the Golden Flyers stormed back and brought the game within four points with only 4:30 left in play. Though AU continued to shoot well, they just could not seem to shake the Golden Flyers who hung in to keep the game close. Finally, with time dwindling down, Naz began to foul sending a gang of Saxons to the line. Down the stretch the Saxons shot 9-of-10 from the charity stripe to grab the clutch win.
Walsh ended the night with a game-high 25 points while grabbing 11 rebounds. Seelman added 21 points and four steals while Reinhart scored all 11 of his points in the second half. Senior guard Tim Pacheco (Mt. Pocono, PA/Pocono Mountain East) added eight points four steals and four assists the AU campaign.
ITHACA 71, Stevens 70
HOBOKEN, N.J. – Ith
aca College hit a free throw with less than one second to go to earn a 71-70 win over Stevens Institute of Technology in an Empire 8 men's basketball game at the Canavan Arena Friday night.
Trailing by three points with 33 seconds remaining after 1-of-2 at the line from Ithaca, sophomore guard Patrick Barron hit a three-pointer from the right side to tie the game at 70 with 10 seconds to play. The Bombers raced down the court, eventually getting a look from the left corner. The attempt was no good, but the Ducks were whistled for a loose-ball-foul with .4 seconds remaining, and senior guard Sam Bevan connected on 1-of-2 at the line to give Ithaca a 71-70 Empire 8 road win over Stevens.
Ithaca improves to 5-8 overall and 2-2 in the conference. The Ducks drop to 2-2 in the E8 and 6-8 overall.
Senior forward Patrick Sabatino led the Ducks with a career-high 31 points on 12-for-21 shooting, adding eight rebounds and two steals to his line. Barron finished with 19 points, hitting five three-pointers, and dishing out four assists. Senior forward Kenny Gan grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds for the Ducks to go along with three assists and two steals.
Stevens shot 38.8 percent (26-for-67) from the field and 7-for-15 from deep. The Ducks finished with a 49-29 (plus-20) margin on the glass, committing 15 turnovers and dishing out 15 assists.
Ithaca shot 41.1 percent from the field (23-for-56) and 10-for-34 (29.4 percent) from deep. The Bombers were 15-for-18 at the line, and tallied a 13-to-12 assist-to-turnover ratio. Freshman guard Marc Chasin led the Bombers with 27 points on 9-for-19 from the field. Bevan added 12 points and five assists.
Sabatino started the first half misfiring on four of his first five shots before connecting on seven straight to help the Ducks erase a 28-22 deficit and take a 38-37 lead into the locker room. The senior finished the opening 20 minutes with 19 points.
With the tie scored at 40, Ithaca was able to go on an 11-0 over a span of 2:59 to take a 51-40 margin with 14:50 on the clock. The Ducks slowly chipped away, fighting within four at the 8:22 mark following a Barron three-pointer, and within three after a pair at the line from Barron at the 5:41 mark. Four in a row from Ithaca pushed the lead back to seven but another Barron triple slowed the momentum, and after the Ducks denied Ithaca on its next trip down, a layup from junior forward Alex Lorenz made it 63-61 with 3:33 remaining.
Ithaca was able to extend the lead, eventually going up five points with 1:15 left, but a pretty feed from Barron to Sabatino made it 69-67, setting up the 1-of-2 at the line for Ithaca and Barron's game-tying three-pointer before Bevan's game-winning free throw.