NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Senior Dom LeMorta (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) surpassed 1,000 points in the NCAA men's basketball second round, scoring 28 points as Alfred University men's basketball's (24-5, 14-2 Empire 8) historic season came to a close against #9 Christopher Newport Saturday evening.
 
The Saxons finished the season with the second most wins in program history (24) and tied a program record for consecutive wins (14). The 2018-19 squad is only the second team in program history to advance to the NCAA tournament second round, joining the 1985-86 team as the only teams to win a game in the NCAA tournament.
 
LeMorta led the Saxons offensively for the second consecutive night, scoring 28 points against the eight-ranked defense in the nation. Fellow senior Scotty Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) chalked up 12 points to accompany four rebounds and three assists. Senior Sage Brown (Cortland, NY/Cortland) had a team-high five rebounds to go with four points.
 
The Saxons came out of the gates slow, falling behind the Captains 22-5 in the opening seven minutes. AU finally settled in towards the end of the half, bringing the scoring 16 points in the last ten minutes of the half. LeMorta, led AU with eight points while fellow Scotia, NY native, Stopera poured in seven points.
 
The Captains took advantage of the long ball shooting 12-of-20 (60.0%) in the first half whiel the Saxons shot 10-of-28 (35.7%) and trailed CNU 49-26 at the half time break.
 
LeMorta opened the second half with a bang, hitting from three-point land, surpassing 1,000 points in his career. He was not finished as we went on to score 17 more points in the half, getting to 1,018 points in his career. Following the performance, LeMorta moved to 20^th on the all-time scoring list in AU history. He wrapped up his year with 591 points after scoring 427 points in his previous three year. Following the highlight from LeMorta, the Captains increased their lead down the stretch to take the victory, 88-53.

"It means a lot to me," LeMorta said about scoring 1,000 points and being one of the top scorers in program history. "But as these guys [his team] know, I just want to win and that was the biggest thing for me coming here freshman year. We wanted to set a culture here. When we left here, we said we wanted to give it everything we had and make this program better so that when we left it was only going to get better. And the guys that are on the team right now, we believe in and they are going to be great players."
 
Over the course of the game, CNU shot 31-of-66 (47.0%) from the field, including 16-of-34 (47.1%) from behind the arc. The Saxons ended the evening on 22-of-64 (34.4%) shooting.
 
AU will say goodbye to the senior class of LeMorta, Stopera, Brown and Pat McLamore Jr. (Greensboro, NC/Aquinas Institute). The group is responsible for a 62-44 (0.585) overall record in the last four years. In addition to LeMorta joining the ranks of the top scorers in school history, Brown moved up the ranks of the best rebounders in school history, finishing his career 12^th all-time in AU history with 641 rebounds. Stopera finished his career with 318 total assists and 705 points in his career while McLamore scored 143 points and 61 assists in two years.

"The seniors set the foundation for the team and hopefully the young guys can keep competing for league titles year in and year out," Head Coach Russell Phillips said recapping this season means for the AU men's basketball program. "We want that to be the expectation, where just making the playoffs isn't the goal anymore."

Brown commented after the game when asked about how he wants to be remembered, "I want to be remembered as the kid that went out there and gave it his all every day. I don't think I was better than a lot of kids, but I just gave it my all and that's how I want to be remembered. And I wanted to go out a champion - and we were Empire 8 champions. I'd rather be known as a team player. I would rather win that worry about statistics. Winning the Empire 8 championship was our goal when we came in as freshman and we got it done."