Staten Island, NY – Vonallen Pickett (Brooklyn, NY) scored 23 points off the bench and Sam Annorh (Queens, NY) added a game-high of 28 points as the SUNY Canton men's basketball team remained perfect on the season with an 85-82 victory against Connecticut College on Tuesday night.

With the win the Roos improve to 9-0 and will advance to Wednesday evening's championship game in the 14th annual Tournament of Heroes hosted by the College of Staten Island (CSI). SUNY Canton will play the winner of Tuesday's CSI-Westminster College contest.

The Camels (5-3) jumped out to a quick 6-0 start and led by as many as eight points early after a Zuri Pavlin tip-in made it 12-4. SUNY Canton chipped away at their deficit and took they first lead of the game at 26-23 after Kam Peterkin (Harlem, NY) converted on an old-fashioned three-point play with 8:53 remaining in the first half.

 

From that point on neither team would lead by more than four the remainder of the opening half. The Roos closed the half on a 6-0 run to take a 41-39 lead into intermission. Annorh paced the Roos with 13 points in the opening 20 minutes, whileWalt Jeter (Fort Drum, NY) added seven points. Pavlin paced Connecticut College with 13 points.

The teams exchanged the lead early in the second half as the Camels held a 57-52 advantage with 13:49 remaining after a Isaiah Robinson make from behind the arc. Annorh scored the next four points for the Roos and Pickett drained three consecutive three-pointers to spark a 13-2 spurt that put SUNY Canton on top 65-59.

The Roos continued their impressive second half shooting performance as Jeter knocked down a trey to put SUNY Canton up 70-63 with 8:33 to play.  Over the next three minutes the Roos used a 10-3 run to open up their largest lead of the contest at 80-68 after a Peterkin layup with 4:58 remaining.

When it looked like SUNY Canton had all but sealed a victory the Camels responded with a huge 12-0 run of their own over 3:04 of clock time to tie the game at 80 with 1:54 to play. SUNY Canton went 3-for-4 from the line to lead 83-80 with 27 seconds left. A Robinson hoop in the paint got Connecticut College within one but Pickett knocked down a pair of clutch free throws with 10 seconds remaining before a last second three from Lee Messier fell short.

Annorh led all players with 28 points and added a team-best seven assists, while shooting 8-for-14 from the field, 4-for-7 from long distance and 8-for-11 from the line. Pickett posted 18 of his 23 points after halftime as he was 7-for-12 from the field, 4-for-6 from behind the arc and 5-for-6 from the line. Jeter and Pickett added 10 points apiece for the Roos.

SUNY Canton shot 48 percent from three-point range (11-for-23) and 82 percent from the charity stripe (18-for-22), while hitting on 48 percent of their field goals (28-for-58). The Roos held a big advantage in bench points (35-19), while the Camels had the upper hand in second chance points (15-8).

Pavlin paced Connecticut College with 26 points, while David Labossiere (11), Daniel Janel (10) and Robinson (10) all finished in double figures.

The Roos will face the winner of the College of Staten Island and Westminster College at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the championship game of the 14th annual Tournament of Heroes. Stay up to date with the latest news directly from the SUNY Canton Athletics department by "liking" us on Facebook and "following" our Twitter, Instagram and YouTube accounts.