POTSDAM, N.Y.—Gordon Men's Basketball overcame a slow start with a blistering finish, outscoring their opponents by 25 in the second half to secure an 87-72 at the North Country Invitational on Friday Night. The Fighting Scots put on a show after halftime to beat SUNY-Potsdam after trailing by 10 at the break, setting up a matchup with host Clarkson in the championship game tomorrow at 4 p.m.
Potsdam found some success early against the with a 22-8 run in fewer than eight minutes to begin the game. The Bears were able to turn the Scots over several times during the run and capitalized on a host of chances at the free throw line.
Gordon was able to cut the lead to three points twice in the final few minutes of the first half, thanks to a three-pointer by Josh Ribeiro (Attleboro, Mas.) and made free throws by Garrisson Duvivier (Brockton, Mass.). However, the Bears scored the final seven points of the first half to go up 42-32.
The tables were turned to begin the second half, as Gordon made its first five shots from the field and junior Jake Hart (Allendale, N.J.) converted an old-fashioned three-point play to make it a two-point deficit at the 17:18 mark.
Sam Johnson (Chatham, Mass.) gave Gordon its first lead since 2-0 with a layup on a nice give-and-go with Duvivier before Jake Haar (Huntington Beach, Calif) knocked down his lone triple of the contest to make it a 51-47 game.
Gordon never trailed again.
After a quiet first half, Johnson ruled the day in the second half with 14 points and 10 boards after the break. He finished with 19 and 14 overall. The Fighting Scots also received strong nights from bench players Ribeiro and Graham Tienhaara (Holden, Mass.) to be able to pull away in the second half.
Duvivier led all players with 22 points and a team-high five assists. Jaren Yang (San Francisco, Calif.) continued his quietly good play with 10 points and two of Gordon's three made deep balls. Hart had nine points on 3-of-4 shooting and four dimes.
Tienhaara had career highs in points (10) and rebounds (8), while Ribeiro chipped in eight and four.
Gordon shot at a 47.1 clip compared to a 40-perent mark for the Bears. The Fighting Scots shot at an eye-popping 60 percent pace in the second half and converted 11 of 13 free throws.
Josh Blagrove (Brookly, Conn.) led the Bears with 16 points.
Gordon won its first two games of the season for the second consecutive year after not accomplishing the feat since the 2009-2010 campaign.