MADISON, N.J. (Nov. 14, 2015) – The Drew University men's basketball team will be playing for the 2015 Rose City Classic championship after defeating SUNY Potsdam, 98-73, in the 2015-16 season opener in Baldwin Gymnasium.
 
The Rangers (1-0) advance to Sunday's championship game at 4:00 p.m. against William Paterson University (1-0), who defeated University of Mount Union, 100-78, in its first round game on Saturday.
 
Senior guard Kevin Herring II led all scorers with 25 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including a 4-of-9 mark from beyond the arc. He also made 7-of-9 free throws while grabbing four rebounds and passing out two assists. Junior guard Joey Feinberg made his Drew debut with 20 points and an 11-of-16 mark from the charity stripe. Senior Mike Klinger, sophomore Yonathan Napoleon and freshman Brian Oehme all had 10 points to round out five double-digit scorers on the evening. FreshmanNate Aldrich started in his college debut and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
 
The Rangers won their opener by methodically winning small battles across the court. Head coach Darryl Keckler's squad scored 14 points off turnovers and put away 11 second chance points. They won the battle in the paint, 28-24, and scored 12 points on the fast break compared to the Bears' 10.
 
Midway through the first half, Napoleon went on a personal 5-0 run with a three-pointer and two freebies to push the Drew lead to 31-19 and the Rangers would not look back. Fast break buckets by Herring and more solid free throw shooting held the first half lead. Drew shot 28-of-39 as a team from the free throw line on Saturday.
 
Potsdam cut the lead to four with 3:49 to play in the opening half, but an 8-0 run would help the Rangers take the 47-38 lead into the intermission.
 
The Bears kept it within single digits to open the final 20 minutes of play. Oehme had his signature first game moment by hitting two 3-pointers about a minute apart to put Drew up 61-52 when Potsdam was threatening to creep closer. Herring followed with one of his four treys for the 13-point advantage midway through the second half.
 
Drew took control on the strength of an 11-0 run, ending with a Napoleon layup at 8:31 to go. Feinberg heated up toward the end of the game to keep Drew in the comfortable lead down the stretch. The junior transfer from York (Pa.) College scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half.