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ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University men's basketball team opened up its 2017-18 season with an 80-77 against D'Youville College on Friday evening at Alfred State College during the first day of the Special Tees Tipoff Tournament.
 
The Saxons (1-0, 0-0 Empire 8) were led by junior captain Sage Brown (Cortland, NY/Cortland) with the first Saxon double-double of the year with 21 points and 13 rebounds (seven offensive and six defensive). Fellow junior Scotty Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) followed with 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Stopera and senior forward Tristin Hook (Red Bank, NJ/Middletown North) both had two steals on the evening, leading Alfred University.
 
"I thought we responded well in the second half, by being a lot more physical," Head Coach Russell Phillips said. "We emphasize that, trying to get post touches and offensive rebounds and I thought that was the difference in the second half. They're a good team and they played well so I was glad that we could pull out a close one tonight."
 
The Saxons opened the game up with a scoring spree. They began with a 17-7 run with the last eight points being scored by Hook with Brown adding four points, junior Dom LeMorta (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) contributing a layup and Stopera's game-opening three-pointer.
 
With just under eight minutes remaining in the first half, sophomore Derek Schmidt (Olean, NY/Olean) drained a three to give the Saxons their largest lead of the game with a 13-point advantage over D'Youville, 29-16. Alfred managed to keep at least a 10-point lead for almost two minutes before the Spartans, behind a slew of Alfred fouls, managed to fight back and end the first half with a Saxon 40-39 lead.
 
The story of the second half was a simple punch-for-punch between Alfred University and D'Youville. The Spartans scored the first point of the final 20 minutes with a 1-for-2 free throw line stay for Jeremy Vanduluit, making it 40-40. Senior Dalton Cousin (Sherrill, NY/Verona-Verona-Sherrill) responded with a layup off a pass from LeMorta to establish a Saxon lead, 42-40. Alfred University would never relinquish the lead or allow the score to be tied again for the final 18 and a half minutes following the Cousin layup. With just over 12 minutes left in regulation, Brian Nwaekeke put in an unassisted layup to bring the Spartans within one, 53-54 before Alfred would essentially, close out the contest.
 
Other top scores for the Saxons were Hook with his 16 points and D. Schmidt with eight. Senior captain Nick Schmidt (Olean, NY/Olean) led the Saxons with seven assists and was third with seven rebounds.
 
As a team, the Saxons controlled the paint, scoring 52 points from the area while D'Youville had 40. Both teams managed 28 points each from their benches. The Saxons held a slight, 22-20 advantage in points off of turnovers while the Spartans held a slight advantage of their own, 17-16 in points scored from second chances. Alfred doubled the fast break points, 8-4 in the contest.
 
D'Youville was led by Nwaekeke with 16 points and 11 rebounds. He was followed by three Spartans who each scored 11 points. No one on their team besides Nwaekeke had double-figure rebounds and no one had more than two assists. Simeon Heard led the Spartans with three steals.
 
The Saxons will next host Cazenovia College on Saturday, November 18 at 4 PM in the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena to close out the Special Tees Tipoff Tournament.