YouTube Recap | SaxonTV Play of the Week | Empire 8 Play of the Week

ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University men's basketball team won its third Empire 8 Athletic Conference game in a row as it toppled The Sage Colleges 89-81 in the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena Friday night.
 
Friday's game was the first game of the spring semester for the Saxons (12-4, 5-2 Empire 8) as they were led by senior guard Nick Schmidt's (Olean, NY/Olean) 22 points in front of a strong home crowd. He tied his season-high in scoring as he had 22 against Hartwick College.
 
"It was great to be home and we had a great crowd," Head Coach Russell Phillips said. "It was nice to have a game that was not over winter break and have everyone come here and fill it up and looking forward to another one."
 
Nick was once again perfect from the free throw line as he went 5-for-5 and drained five 3-pointers on the evening along with one more from inside of the arc. He neared a double-double as he tallied seven of the Saxons' 24 assists of the contest.
 
Junior point guard Scotty Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia) neared a triple-double as he finished the game with 12 points (making 7-of-10 free throws), nine assists and eight rebounds (seven defensive). Stopera's assists were a game-high and his rebounds tied fellow junior Sage Brown (Cortland, NY/Cortland) for the Saxon lead in that statistical category. Brown scored 10 points and assisted twice.
 
Nick, Stopera and Brown were joined in the double-digit scoring efforts by senior forward Dalton Cousin (Sherrill, NY/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) and his 13 points, going 6-for-11 with a free throw and sophomore guard Sam Dagon (Hornell, NY/Hornell) who tallied 11 points on 5-for-11 with one 3-pointer. Sophomore guard and Nick's brother, Derek Schmidt (Olean, NY/Olean) tied his season-high off of the bench with nine points and he hit three 3-pointers in only eight minutes on the court.
 
The first half of the game saw a lot of back-and-forth action as Sage and Alfred University exchanged blows with the majority of the first 10 minutes being in favor of the Gators, who at one point had an eight-point lead after a 3-pointer from Jordan Devaughn just over five minutes into the start, 20-12. The Saxons battled back for the next 11 minutes until a layup from Cousin put them up, 36-35 with three minutes remaining in the first. Sage managed to tie the score at 37 after a pair of free throws from Fethener Aime with just over a minute remaining. Cousin sunk a free throw while Nick hit a 3-pointer with just 18 seconds remaining to give them a 41-37 Saxon lead.
 
Darius Denmark hit a pair of charity throws with seven seconds remaining, sending the score of 41-39 in favor of Alfred into halftime.
 
"It was a really physical game we knew they were an excellent offensive rebounding team and we had to make sure we limited their second chances and I think we did a great job with that," Coach Phillips said.
 
The visitors from Sage opened up the second half with a strong scoring run as they managed to get back leads of six, twice before AU retook the advantage off of yet another Nick 3-pointer. They would spend the remainder of the game in the lead and at multiple times, having double-digit leads. Alfred University also did not commit a single foul for almost the entire first 10 minutes of the second half.
 
Devaughn led the Gators with a game-high 25 points and six steals.
 
As a team, the Saxons shot 46.3% from the floor and an impressive 48.0% from 3-point land. Sage finished with 40.0% from the floor and 44.4% from the 3-point arc. Both teams scored 12 3-pointers.
 
Sage held the advantage in points off of turnovers, 18-8 and fast break points 14-8. Alfred topped the visitors, 29-20 from the bench and 36-30 from the paint while both were tied in second chance points, 17-17.
 
The Saxons will next host the Pioneers of Utica College in Empire 8 action on Saturday, January 20 at 2PM in the Galanis Family Arena.