ALFRED, NY – The Terry S. Galanis Family Arena was packed and loud on Tuesday evening for an Empire 8 matchup between the Alfred University men's basketball team and the St. John Fisher Cardinals.
It was all Saxons (15-4, 8-2 Empire 8) from the tip, as they rode a hot shooting night for the 103-88 victory over the Cardinals. With the win, AU moves past Fisher for second place in the conference.
Alfred came out with an intensity that Fisher just could not match from the start, going on an 11-0 run to open the contest.
Fisher finally got on the scoreboard at 16:42 mark of the first half and slowly worked its way back to make it 14-9 with 14:55 to play in the opening stanza.
The game went back and forth for a few minutes, with both teams finding the bonus with plenty of time remaining in the opening half.
After two good free throws, the Cardinals found themselves down just 29-25 with 8:30 to play in the first half.
Following a bucket in the paint from Alfred, the Cardinals attempted to get the ball to their end of the court when Cole Eells (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) got his hands on an errant pass and saved it to himself while falling out of bounds. Eells quickly gathered himself and broke away from the field to throw down a monstrous dunk and re-spark the Saxons offense.
Eells followed that play up with a break-away layup for an easy two and was then fed a perfect pass for a wide open three to push the Saxon lead back up to 12 with six minutes left in the first half.
Fisher made it a 10 point ball game before it started to rain threes for AU, with shots from behind the arc from Scotty Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) and Sage Brown (Cortland, NY/Cortland). Alfred led St. John Fisher 54-37 at halftime.
There was no let up from AU coming out of the locker room after halftime as Stopera nailed another three to extend the Saxon lead to 20.
Fisher's Sammy Robinson went on a scoring spree for the Cardinals early in the second half to cut the lead back down to 13 but it did not last long thanks to Elliot Bowen (Salamanca, NY/Ellicottville) going to work in the post along with Stopera's fourth long ball of the night to make it 74-55 with over 14 minutes still in the game.
Jeremiah Zitz (Irondequoit, NY/Irondequoit) and Sam Dagon (Hornell, NY/Hornell) got into the scoring mix during the middle minutes of the second half. Their contributions along with some flashy ball handling from Brown capped off by a pull up three pointer gave the Saxons a 32 point lead over a talented Fisher team.
The lead got as high as 34 points for AU before the fouls began piling up for both teams and any rhythm was hard to come by.
With over four minutes still in the game Jay Brueckl (Angola, NY/Lakeshore) hit a pair of free throws to break 100 points on the scoreboard for the Saxons. This was the first time since the 1988-89 season when AU defeated Fisher 103-98, that Alfred has broken the century mark against the Cardinals.
St. John Fisher was able to cut its deficit to 15 by the end of the ball game but it did not over shadow the Saxon dominance, as AU closed out the impressive victory.
"We came out with a lot of energy. With being home after a couple of back-to-back road games, the guys were ready to go and this is a bit of a rivalry game, we're two and three in the standings, so just a huge amount of energy coming from our guys out of the gate," Assistant Coach Mike Romano said. "We defended it really well and we shoot the lights out here at home, so it feels good but we have more work to do."
Stopera ended the night with a career high 24 points while going 5-6 from beyond the arc. Brown added 17 points and grabbed a team high eight rebounds. Eells chipped in 15 points and went 3-4 from three-point range. Bowen scored 12 while Brewster Marshall (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) was the fifth Saxon to score in double figures with 10 points. Marshall also forced a team high three steals and blocked two shots. Dom LeMorta (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) finished with eight points and dished out a team high four assists.
Alfred shot over 57 percent from the field in this one and over 52 percent (12-23) from three-point land.
Alfred will be back in action Friday evening as they host Stevens Institute of Technology at 7:30PM.