Springfield, Mass. - March 6, 2020 - The Springfield College men's basketball team produced a 74-49 win over SUNY Canton in the NCAA Division III Championship First Round on Friday night in in Blake Arena.    

Springfield, which was ranked 17th in the the most recent D3hoops.com, improved to 23-4 and will host Hobart in the second round on Saturday night at 7:30 pm.  SUNY Canton, who was making its first appearance in the NCAA Division III Championship, had its season come to a close with a 16-12 mark.

Jake Ross (Northampton, Mass.) stuffed his stat sheet with 16 points, seven rebounds, six steals, and five assists, while Daryl Costa (Providence, R.I.) netted a career-high 15 points to go along with four steals.  Heath Post (Cheshire, Conn.) netted nine points and pulled down 16 rebounds to become the first Springfield College men's basketball to ever reach the 1,000 career rebound milestone.  As a team, Springfield had 17 steals and and registered 17 assists on 28 made field goals as it shot 42% from the floor.

For SUNY Canton, Joseph Werner tallied a game-high 20 points and grabbe seven rebounds, while Juztin Chambers-Phillips contributed six points and three boards off the bench.  SUNY Canton committed 19 turnovers in the loss, which turned in 26 points for the Pride.  

Springfield drilled their first three pointers of the game before Costa finished in transition at the 16:20 mark as the visitors whistled for a timeout with the Pride holding an 11-0 cushion.  Trey Witter (Unionville, Conn.) later stepped into a three from the left wing to push the cushion to 15-2 at 13:36, and after the Roos cut it to 17-8 on a fast-break bucket by Chambers-Phillps, Springfield put together a 10-4 push, capped off by a Ross inside socre for the 27-12 edge with 6:25 to go.  The visitors would get no closer than 10 points the remainder of the frame and an acrobatic finish at the rim by Costa followed by a sensational look by Post to Deonte Sandifer (Pittsfield, Mass.) for a score in the final seconds allowed the Pride to head into the locker room with a 36-19 lead. Costa tied his career-high with 13 points in the frame, while Post hauled in 10 boards.

The Pride's lead would grow to 42-19 when Costa scored in transition as part of a 6-0 burst in the opening 1:18 of the second half and Post would bury a straight-away triple at 15:53 as the lead ballooned to 47-21.  A second-effort from Ross kept the Pride in front, 61-35, with 8:43 to play, and after Post would corralled his 1,000th rebound with 4:05 to play, Robert Baum (West Springfield, Mass.) knocked down a trifecta which gave Springfield to earn its largest lead of the game, 69-40.

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