ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University men's basketball team dropped its first game of the 2019-20 season to SUNY Cobleskill, 81-84 during the opening day of the 2019 Special Tees Tipoff Tournament held at Alfred State College's Orvis Center.
 
"Cobleskill did a good job of dictating the game and made a lot of big shots in the second half," Head Coach Russell Phillips said. "We didn't have the level of preparation that was needed to win a game and that was evidenced by our 29 turnovers. We have a quick turnaround and need to get ready for a good Clarkson team tomorrow but we will learn from this and continue to improve."
 
The Saxons (1-1, 0-0 Empire 8) held a 41-30 halftime lead but the Fighting Tigers went on a second half scoring spree, tallying 54 while Alfred only managed 40. AU was led by the 19 points from Mike Schmidt (Olean, NY/Olean). He was one of five Saxons in double-digit scoring as Cole Eells (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) had 17, Brewster Marshall (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) had 13, Sam Dagon (Hornell, NY/Hornell) had 12 and Elliot Bowen (Salamanca, NY/Ellicotville) had 11.
 
Defensively, Eells led with eight defensive rebounds with one offensive rebound. Marshall had two blocks on the night.
 
One of the biggest deficits on the evening was turnovers as the Saxons lost the ball 29 times compared to Cobleskill's 18.
 
The Tigers started the game with a couple of instances having leads of five points before AU closed the gap and took the lead off a layup from Darren Miller (Seneca Falls, NY/Mynderse), 15-13. After another lead change to a Cobleskill advantage, 16-15, Dagon hit a jumper with the and-one for an 18-16 lead. Then then built the lead to an 11-point advantage to going into halftime with the 41-30 lead off an Eells jumper.
 
In the second half, the Saxons continued its hot shooting to earn a 59-45 lead for the largest lead between both teams of the night after an Eells 3-pointer. Fouls and turnovers followed though which brought Cobleskill back to tie it up at 59 points. After exchanging blows and tying the game again at 63, the Fighting Tigers got a 65-63 lead which they held until the Saxons grabbed a 79-78 lead with 0:43 seconds remaining.
 
Cobleskill hit a 3-pointer followed by three free throws to close out the game. The Tigers shot 82.1% from the free throw line while AU shot 60% on the evening from the stripe. They also held the advantage in points from the bench, 30-21 with 25 coming from Khayri Harris as he was the game-high scorer.
 
The Saxons will close out the Special Tees Tipoff Tournament with the hosting of Clarkson University in the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena at 4 p.m. on Saturday, November 16.