BUFFALO, NY - Despite having their worst shooting day of the season the Medaille men's basketball team overcame that rough patch and upended crosstown rival D'Youville College (60-54) on the Spartans home floor.  Both teams struggled from the floor but the Mavs depth proved to be too much for D'Youville to handle down the stretch.

The host Spartans jumped out to an eleven point (19-9) lead with 10:28 remaining in the first half as the Mavs could not knock down shots consistently.  However, a (25-12) run in the late stages of the opening frame would see the Mavs grab a three point edge at the break (34-31).  The Mavs finished the first half shooting at a (35.1%) clip while knocking down a third of their three point attempts.

The second half would see the Mavs shooting woes get even worse as they were only able to connect on (20.0%) of their field goal attempts.  The game would seesaw for much of the second half until Anthony Battaglia drilled a huge three pointer off a feed from Angel Flores to put the Mavs up (53-52), a lead they would never relinquish.  It was the only field goal attempt that Battaglia would connect on all day, but it turned the tide of the game to the Mavs favor.

The Mavs were led by David Shuey who posted a double/double by netting a game high (14) points and collecting (10) rebounds, while also blocking a shot.  Flores dropped in ten points and dished out five assists, including the critical dime on Battaglia's three, while Sean Bellomo tallied nine points and blocked a pair of shots as well.  The Mavs barely edged out the Spartans in rebounds (47-46) with Steve Bryant pulling down a game high (11) caroms.

The Spartan defense was able to come up with eleven blocks on Medaille shots with Patrick Coyle swatting eight of those.  However, the Maverick defense forced D'Youvile into (24) turnovers and scored fourteen points off of those mistakes.  The Medaille reserves continued to outscore their counterparts as they bested the Spartan reserves (24-14) in the win.

The victory keeps Medaille atop the AMCC standings at (8-1) and they improve to (14-2) overall.  They will hit the home hardwood on Thursday (1/19) when they face rival Penn State-Behrend at 6:00pm.  The Mavs outlasted the Lions (61-55) when the two teams faced each other in their late November matchup in Erie, PA.

SEASON STATS

AMCC STANDINGS