LATROBE, Pa. (Nov. 8) – Four players scored in double digits as the Saint Vincent men's basketball team earned a convincing 84-68 season-opening win over Carlow in the Robert S. Carey Center.  
 
The efficient Saint Vincent (1-0) offense shot 47 percent from both the floor and behind the arc, while finishing with a 30-10 margin in fastbreak points. Defensively, the Bearcats limited the Celtics (0-1) to just 39 percent from the floor and forced 14 turnovers.

Saint Vincent's Dev Ostrowski led all scorers with 18 points, going 7-for-12 from the field and 3-for-5 from behind the arc, while Mike Iuzzolino went for 13 points, freshman Matthew Puodziukaitis scored 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds in his collegiate debut, and Osyon Jones added 10 points.
 
The two teams traded ties over the opening seven minutes, before a three-pointer by Jevontae Jones kickstarted a quick 10-0 Bearcat run to open up a 22-12 lead with 9:17 left in the first half. Randy Wilkerson and Iuzzolino each hit layups over the surge, while Jones capped off the run by making a pair of free throws.
 
Carlow battled back over the next two minutes to cut SVC's lead to 24-20 with 7:30 left, before a long three by Terek Crosby started another lengthy Bearcat run. A Jones blocked shot led to a traditional three-point play by Puodziukaitis to push the advantage back into double digits, 32-20, with 5:30 left, and SVC continued to add on, with Jones' bucket underneath capping off a 16-2 run and giving the Bearcats their largest lead of the half, 40-22, with 2:54 to go. Saint Vincent would eventually take a 43-27 lead into the locker room after Iuzzolino closed out the half by burying three free throws.
 
The SVC lead continued to grow in the opening stages of the second half, with a Podziukaitis bucket in the paint pushing it to 20 points, 47-27, before Jadakis Mack and Iuzzolino connected on three-pointers on back-to-back trips to extend the margin to 61-35 with 14:48 left. The Bearcats' lead would hover between 19-23 points over the game's next five minutes, before Ostrowski scored five points in a 15-second span, and Iuzzolino nailed his second trey of the night to put the Bearcats up 69-42 with 8:46 to go.
 
Saint Vincent then maintained a cushion of 20 or more points until the game's final 45 seconds, when Carlow connected on a pair of free throws and then hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to account for the final 16-point margin.
 
In his SVC debut, point guard Maxwell Gordon delivered a game-high six assists against just one turnover, while Ostrowski and Iuzzolino each tallied four helpers. Ostrowski snagged a team-best three steals, and Puodziukaitis blocked a pair of shots.
 
It marked the third opening-night victory for the Bearcats in as many years, while SVC is now 15-4 in its season-openers under veteran head coach D.P. Harris.
 
For Carlow, Riley Comforti came off the bench to score a team-best 15 points, and Devin Lewis led the Celtics with six rebounds.
 
The Bearcats will now have a week-long respite before traveling south to take part in the Frankie Allen Tip-Off Tournament, hosted by Roanoke College. SVC opens the two-day tourney on Friday, Nov. 15, facing William Peace at 8 p.m.