Nov. 18, 2011

ST. DAVID'S, P.A. - The Lehman men's basketball team improved to 2-0 on Friday night as it blew past Eastern Nazarene College 71-54 in the opening game of the Nate Ware Invitational on the campus of Eastern University behind 20 points and 10 rebounds from juniorMathias Raggiotto.

Raggiotto shot 7-for-17 from the field, including 3-of-5 from three-point territory.  Fellow juniors Phil Ductan and Quaseem Weems each added 14 points, while senior Patryk Odedina ripped down 10 rebounds.

Eastern Nazarene was led by Chima Ezeigbo's 19 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots.

The Lightning started strong against Nazarene, jumping out to a 12-1 lead behind eight early points by Raggiotto.  Nazarene narrowed its deficit to 14-12 with 11:09 left, but the Lightning rode strong play from Raggiotto and Weems into the locker room up 35-25.

In the second half, Ezeigbo's layup brought Nazarene to within 49-42.  However, Lehman used an 11-0 run that included six points from Weems to bump its advantage up to 60-42 with 8:23 on the clock.   Nazarene would not challenge again.

With its win the Lightning advances to the championship game to play the host Eastern University Eagles at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.