PITTSFORD, NY – The Alfred University men's basketball team completed the regular season sweep over the St. John Fisher Cardinals on Saturday. The Saxons played a strong end to the first half and the entire second half to defeat the Cardinals by a score of 104-82.

The win gives AU its school record 10th consecutive conference victory and its 20th win of the season. The last time that an Alfred University men's basketball team won 20 games in a season was the 1985-86 season when that team won 25 games.

AU has now defeated St. John Fisher twice in the same season for the first time since the 2011-12 season and did so by breaking 100 points in each of the games this season.   

The Saxons came out firing on all Cylinders, especially senior guard Dom LeMorta (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville), who hit a jumper and two 3-pointers to put Alfred out to an early 10-2 lead over the Cardinals.  

Fisher began to settle down as the game got deeper into the first half and tied the score at 17 with 12:08 to play. 

The teams traded the lead a handful of times up until the three-minute mark of the first half.

From that point, the long-range shots began to fall for the Saxons as LeMorta, Cole Eells (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) and Scotty Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) all hit 3-pointers to spark a 16-5 run for Alfred and send the Saxons into the break leading 52-41.

AU kept its foot on the pedal in the second half and never let the Cardinals back into the game.

Sam Dagon (Hornell, NY/Hornell) got his long range game going during the early minutes of the second stanza and put AU up by 17.

The Saxons continued to have success pounding the ball inside to Elliot Bowen (Salamanca, NY/Ellicottville), who had a career day while the other first-year big man Brewster Marshall (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) was a factor on both ends of the court.

A couple of free throws from Bowen with just over a minute left to play, put Alfred over the century mark for the third time in the last six games and the Saxons were able to walk away with another statement victory.

"Happy with our effort tonight," coach Russell Phillips said. "We defended really well as a team, which helped fuel our offense. Had some big time individual performances from multiple guys. Now our focus needs to shift to Nazareth on Tuesday." 

Bowen had a huge day on the offensive end with a career high 27 points to lead the Saxons.  He was 10-for-15 from the field and an efficient 7-for-8 from the free throw line. LeMorta finished with 19 points, all of which came in the first half. Dagon scored 16 while going a perfect 2-for-2 from behind the arc. Stopera ended with 15 points and seven assists. Sage Brown (Cortland, NY/Cortland) had a near double double with 11 points and nine rebounds and also forced three steals on defense. 

The Saxons will enjoy this one and get back to work for a huge rematch next Tuesday night against Nazareth.