ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University men's basketball team remained competitive in their 84-72 loss to St. John Fisher College on Tuesday night from the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena.
The Saxons (9-5, 2-3 Empire 8) hit 13 shots from three-point range, while holding the Cardinals (11-4, 5-1 Empire 8) to 23.1 percent from deep.
"Effort was not an issue tonight," Head Coach
Erich Kaempffe said. "We played very hard. We have to clean up some things from an execution standpoint and we'll get to work on that."
Kenneth Allison Jr. (Cleveland, OH/Shaker Heights) led the Saxons with a season-high 16 points to go with two assists.
Cole Eells (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) scored 11 points and brought in seven boards. Both
Kevin Durkin (Buffalo, NY/St. Joseph's Collegiate) and
Mike Schmidt (Olean, NY/Olean) finished with 12 points.
A three-point shot from Durkin gave Alfred their first lead at the 13:41 mark of the opening half. Consecutive three-point shots from Durkin later in the half had the Saxons leading by as many as seven points over the Cardinals. Allison Jr made a three-point shot in the final minute of the first half, which was quickly followed by a layup from Eells at the buzzer, as AU led 42-33 at the break.
The Saxons continued to apply pressure in the second half, as a three-point shot from Eells had the Saxons leading by 12 points. A 6-0 run by St. John Fisher was answered by another three-point shot from Eells. The Cardinals put together a 7-0 run a few moments later, cutting their deficit to three points. Baskets from Allison Jr. and Schmidt extended AU's lead to eight points. St. John later strung together a 9-0 to take their first lead at the 3:09 mark of the second half. Each team continued to trade successful shots, but St. John Fisher outscored Alfred University 11-5 in the final two minutes to steal the win.
"Our guys did some nice things tonight," Kaempffe said. "We all need to get better tomorrow, and then get better Thursday. We'll see where that leaves us on Friday."
Alfred University will next travel to play Utica College on Friday with tip-off at 7:30 PM.
