Buffalo, NY-In a see-saw affair inside the College Center Gym, the D'Youville College men's basketball team earned their first win of the season with a 68-65 win over visiting Franciscan University.  The second-half saw both teams battle to 6 ties and 9 lead changes, four of those changes came in the final 3:35.

Jon Gemerek (Depew, NY/Depew) put the Spartans ahead for good on a 19-footer with 24 seconds left to play.  The freshman scored a team-high 18 points, 14 coming in the second-half. 

A steal and a layup from Erik Prophet (Buffalo, NY/City Honors) extended the lead to three points with 4 seconds left.  A final shot from the visitors was off the mark to end the game.  Prophet finished with 17 points (13 in the second-half), a game-high 6 steals, and a team-high 8 rebounds.

Marcus Clarke (Olean, NY/Archbishop Walsh) added 11 points and Connor Gallivan (Elma, NY/Iroquois) 6 points. 

D'Youville trailed 32-29 at halftime and shot 42.4% from the floor in the second-half.  For the first time this season, D'Youville held the edge on the glass (48-45), and held Franciscan to just 6 offensive rebounds while collecting 16 offensive boards. For the first time this season D'Youville was not on the minus side in turnover to assist ratio (15-15).  The Spartans also had 15 steals compared to just 6 for Franciscan.

D'Youville improves to 1-6 on the season, 1-2 in the AMCC.  Next for the Spartans is the Harold J. Brodie/RIT Tournament December 14-15.  D'Youville will play host RIT on December 14th at 8:00 p.m.  The following day (Dec. 15) D'Youville will play at 1 or 3 p.m against either Manhattanville or Keuka.