ONEONTA, NY – The Alfred University men's basketball team took on the Hawks of Hartwick College on Friday evening. The Saxons (13-4, 6-2 Empire 8) rolled to the 89-66 victory.
After a bit of a slow start, the Saxons found themselves tied with the Hawks at 17 with 11:02 to play in the first half.
A three pointer from Sage Brown (Cortland, NY/Cortland) fueled an 8-0 run that was capped off by another three from Scotty Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville), giving AU a 25-15 lead with 8:40 remaining in the first half.
After trading buckets for the next minute, Cole Eells (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) nailed a shot from beyond the arc. Stopera then followed suit with his second long ball of the game, extending the Alfred lead to 10.
AU extended its lead to as many as 15 points following a second triple from Eells at the 4:20 mark of the opening half.
Hartwick settled down in the following minutes and cut it to a seven point ball game, making the score 43-36 at halftime.
The opening minutes of the second half were a little too close for comfort for the Saxons. A couple of layups followed by a three from the Hawks made it 47-45 with 17:00 remaining in the game.
Brown then nailed a three to get the Alfred offense back into a groove. The Saxons went on a 12-2 run to extend their lead back up to 14 with 12:47 on the clock.
From that point, it was all AU. Dom LeMorta (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) and Stopera both hit threes in the following minutes to push the Alfred lead up to 20 points.
The Saxons ended up winning this one comfortably and walked away with their sixth Conference victory of the season.
"Happy with how we defended the arc today. We did a good job of limiting their attempts and offensive rebounds," Head Coach Russell Phillips said. "We have a quick turnaround and need to be ready for Elmira tomorrow."
LeMorta and Brown each scored 15 points on the night to lead AU. Stopera had 14 points including four three-pointers. Sam Dagon (Hornell, NY/Hornell) chipped in 13 points and a team high five assists while Elliot Bowen (Salamanca, NY/Elliocottville) was the fifth Saxon in double figures with 11 points.
Alfred will be at Elmira College to take on the Soaring Eagles tomorrow at 4PM.