ROCHESTER, NY – The Alfred University men's basketball team was knocked out of the Empire 8 Athletic Conference semifinals in the finals seconds to No. 1 seeded and host, Nazareth College on Friday evening.
 
The Saxons (18-8, 11-5 Empire 8) fought back from a nine-point deficit to start the second half of play to bring it within one point after a good 3-pointer from Scotty Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia) with four seconds remaining to play. Stopera was fouled on the shot and went to the line to tie the game at 73 but hit rim, leading to a Nick Schmidt (Olean, NY/Olean) rebound and the attempt at a jumper as time expired, with the unfortunate result of not going in.
 
At one point, Nazareth had a 10-point lead (largest of the night) during the second half after a good 3-pointer from Cody Green with 9:37 remaining. The following two minutes were back-and-forth for both teams, with the Saxons keeping the Golden Flyer lead to single-digits. Sage Brown (Cortland, NY/Cortland) put in back-to-back layups, followed by a Sam Dagon (Hornell, NY/Hornell) and a Dalton Cousin (Sherrill, NY/Verona-Vernon-Sherrill) layup each, to give AU its first lead of the second half. Alfred would not be able to build more than a one-point lead for the remaining of regulation.
 
Stopera was the forerunner for the Saxons in scoring, hitting 7-of-12 (4-of-7 from 3-point range) for 18 points. Brown and Cousin rounded out the double-digit scores for Alfred University with 14 points each. Both Brown and Cousin also recorded 11 rebounds on the evening for mirrored double-doubles. Stopera was credited with four assists as a team-high.
 
Naz was led by Jake Burgio's 26 points and Tyler Stenglein's 21 points as the only Golden Flyers to hit double-figures. Stephen Gabel had 10 rebounds while Brendan Wind assisted eight times.
 
"Incredibly proud of our guys. They played their hearts out, and kept battling all the way," Head Coach Russell Phillips said. "It was a tough environment and we held our composure. Naz is a great team and Burgio and Stenglein played very well. Our seniors set the tone for us all year and left their mark. We will await the ECAC bids and try to send them out with a championship."