The Case Western Reserve University men's basketball team opened play at the Fourth-Annual Greg Richards Classic in Meadville, Pennsylvania with an 85-74 win over Fredonia State University on Friday afternoon.

The win was the second-straight for the Spartans, who improved to 3-1 on the season with the victory, while Fredonia dropped to 0-2 on the year with the loss.

CWRU shot 50.0% (28-for-56) from the field, and saw its bench outscore Fredonia's by a 30-11 margin.  Senior guard Jimmy Holman led the team in scoring for the third-straight game, notching 18 points and three assists.  Senior guard Matt Clark added 16 points, while sophomores David Black and Colin Zucker each scored 12 during the game.  Junior Mac Hartman paced the squad with seven rebounds, with sophomore T.J. Duckett pulling down six during the game

The teams played close through the early going of Friday's contest with the Blue Devils taking a 16-14 lead over the Spartans just under five minutes into the first half.  CWRU would then take control, going on a 17-7 run over the next six minutes, to grab a 31-23 lead on a David Black layup with eight minutes left in the period.  The Spartans would never trail again in the game.

Fredonia scored five-straight points to cut the Spartan lead back to three, 31-28, with 5:17 left.  However, Case Western Reserve closed out the half on a 12-5 run with three-pointers by sophomore Steve Sangree, David Black, Zucker and Holman, taking a 45-35 lead into halftime.

The Spartans shot 50.0% (18-for-36) from the field in the first half, and out-rebounded the Blue Devils 24-15.  Zucker paced the squad during the first 20 minutes with nine points, including a pair of three-pointers, while Holman tallied eight first-half points.

CWRU saw its lead balloon to 16 points with 10:36 left in the game on a three-point shot by Clark.  Fredonia pulled back within nine on a layup by Kasean Jackson with 6:32 left to play, but Clark hit a pair of free throws and Holman followed with a three-pointer of his own to push the  Spartans' lead back to 75-61 with 5:26 remaining.  Holman hit another three just over a minute later that extended the team's lead to 14, 79-65.

Case Western Reserve kept its lead in the double-digits the remainder of the game to secure the victory.

The Blue Devils were led on Friday by Ian Helps, who registered game highs with 26 points and 14 rebounds.

The Spartans will wrap-up play at the Greg Richards Memorial Classic against host Allegheny College on Saturday, November 21^st at 5:00 p.m.  Fans can follow the action with live statistics and video at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/allegheny/.