HAMBURG, N.Y. – The Hilbert College Tip-Off Tournament opened tonight with two exciting high scoring games. Hilbert College easily defeated Alfred State College 93-39 while Utica College and St. Lawrence University battled to an 82-81 thriller. The Hawks will face Utica in the 3 pm championship game while A-State takes on St. Lawrence at 1pm.

In the opening game, Utica College pulled out the victory over St. Lawrence University in the game's final minutes. Utica's Marion Lewis converted a traditional three point play to put the Pioneers up 80-75. St. Lawrence's Brady Condlin hit a much needed three to close the gap to 82-78. Three quick turnovers in back and forth play mid-court gave St. Lawrence another look with 0:29 left. Tired legs led to the missed St. Lawrence lay-up and a quick foul forcing Utica to the foul line. Conor Maisch converted both pushing the Utica lead back to four points, but the game wasn't over yet. Condlin canned another three to cut the score to one point with 0:09 remaining. Maisch missed the front end and St. Lawrence ran out of time.

Utica's Chris Jeffers finished with a double-double (14pt/12 r) and three assists. Aaron Nevins led all Pioneer scorers with 17 points and seven assists, three steals in 39 minutes of play. Conor Maisch added 13 points while Marion Lewis chipped in 13 points and five rebounds.

St. Lawrence's Brady Condlin had a hot hand from long distance hitting four of six attempts and finished with 32 points
(10-12 foul line) and seven rebounds. The Saints had three other players reach double-figure scoring with Kyle Kobis hitting for 13 and Kyle Edwards and Janpeter Brase matching 12 each.

The Hawks jumped out to an 8-0 lead before the Pioneers responded cutting it to a 16-10 at 10:39. Hilbert went on a 24-0 run to end the half holding a 47-14 lead at the break.

Hilbert shot 40% from the field while intimidating A-State into 23.8% shooting. Hilbert forced 20 Alfred State turnovers by the break and were credited with 14 steals before the second half begun.

By 16:21, after Sean Weisansal hit a layup, Hilbert held a 41 point lead (58-17) and extended that to 50 with 5:23 to go. The Hawks were much bigger and ran their offensive patterns better and shot with confidence to gain further control in the second half.

Despite getting called for three quick fouls in the game's first four minutes, Trevor Stark lead all scorers with 15 points and dished off four assists (two steals). Rookie Jalen Smith came off the bench and shot fifty percent from the floor and finished with 13 points and three assists and two steals. Jerame Owens led all rebounds with eight and added 12 points.

Rob Adams was three for six from the floor and made two of three free throw attempts to lead the Pioneers.

Hilbert got scoring help from everyone and the Hawks improved their field goal percentage to 56.7% in the second half. They out-rebounded Alfred State by eleven and finished with 21 assists, 21 steals and one block while forcing 31 turnovers.

Don't forget that both games will be streamed on-line if you are not able to attend in person. Click here. Hawks Radio will broadcast the championship game only and that link can be found at http://www.hilbert.edu/hawkradio.

A team championship plaque and five members of the All-Tournament team will be announced after the championship game concludes.