AURORA, N.Y. – The Gallaudet University men's basketball team earned the program's first-ever North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) win on Saturday in its debut in the new conference. The Bison rallied to take down Wells College 91-84 on the road in wintry Upstate New York.
Gallaudet (4-2, 1-0 NEAC) trailed by 11 points, 26-15, midway through the first half but the Bison put together a 14-0 run to take their first lead in the game 29-26 with 7:25 left before halftime. The two teams went back and forth with Wells (2-5, 2-1) taking a 37-35 lead into intermission.
It only took the Bison a few minutes to regain the lead in the second half. Sophomore guard Joshua Sisco (Spartanburg, S.C.) made a layup to knot the game at 41 with 17:42 left in regulation. Thirty seconds later, junior forward Layton Seeber (Champaign, Ill.) drained a 3-pointer to give the Buff and Blue the lead for good. GU increased its lead to as much as 12 in the second half. Wells came back and cut the Gallaudet lead to three, twice, with under four minutes left. The Bison sealed the game nailing 8-of-10 free-throws in the final minute of play.
Junior guard Tony Tatum (Gardendale, Ala.) scored a career-high 29 points as he made 11-of-15 shots from the floor. Tatum scored 18 of his 29 points in the first half where he shot 70 percent (7-for-10) from the field. He added four rebounds and two assists to go with his game-high point total. Seeber and Sisco were limited to four points each in the first 20 minutes of play but the pair came alive in the second half. Sisco finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Seeber's final line consisted of 18 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four blocks. Sophomore forward Danny Kelly (Strongsville, Ohio) was the fourth Bison to reach double figures as he scored 15 points to go with 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of his GU career.
Gallaudet finished the game with 38 points in the paint as the Bison shot 51.6 percent from the field. Wells had five players in double figures led by Ronald Teekasingh's 17 points. Terry Harrison (15 points), Dave Foltz (13 points, 10 assists), Israel Garcia (13 points) and Benito Perez (12 points) combined to score 53 points. The five players scored 83 percent of the Express points as Wells suffered its first setback in the conference this season.
Gallaudet will face Keuka College tomorrow (Sunday, December 5) on the road at 3 p.m.