GENESEO, NY – The Alfred University men's basketball team picked up a road Empire 8 win at SUNY Geneseo on Friday evening, 70-67.
 
The Saxons (8-8, 4-3 Empire 8) and Knights (5-11, 2-5 Empire 8) were neck-and-neck for the first 14 minutes of the opening half as the hosts held a 23-22 lead after a pair of free throws from Robert Perocolosi. Zion Baitey (Morristown, NJ/Morristown) hit a 3-pointer after a pass from Tyler Curran (Allegany, NY/Allegany-Limestone) with just over five and a half minutes to go before the break. That was the start of a 16-6 scoring spree from the Saxons that closed out the half with a 38-29 lead. Baitey scored all nine of his first half points during the run, adding another 3-pointer and then an and-one layup. Curran and Kenneth Allison Jr (Troy, NY/Lansingburgh) added nine and eight points in the first half, respectively.
 
Geneseo stayed competitive in the second half, cutting the nine-point Saxon lead down to a back-and-forth contest that saw multiple lead changes and ties. Amoi Charles (Elmont, NY/H. Frank Carey) drew a foul with two minutes to go in the game with the scored tied, 67-67. He drained the second of his attempts to set the Saxons up with a 68-67 lead. The clock depleted down to just under 10 seconds with the ball in the possession of AU. Tyler Hind (Randolph, NY/Randolph) got the inbound pass and drew a foul with 0:09 left in the game, where he hit both free throws to go up, 70-67.
 
Geneseo got the ball with 0:07 left in regulation and put up a 3-point shot at the buzzer that hit off the back of the rim, concluding the conference match-up with a Saxon win.
 
"I thought we did a great job hanging in there on the road tonight," Head Coach Erich Kaempffe said. "This is a tough place to play and we got punched in the mouth a little to start the second half but the guys hung in there and dug in late to get some big stops."

Baitey ended the game with a team-high 17 points, sinking four baskets from 3-point land while adding two more from the floor to go along with his and-one free throw. He also pulled down five rebounds, assisted on two more shots while blocking a shot and stealing the ball twice. Curran tacked on 14 points from his four 3-pointers and two free throws. He also had the game-high in assists with five. Nolan Gilbert (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cumberland Valley) joined Baitey and Curran as Saxons who scored in double-digits, recording 10 points off the bench on five field goals from inside of the arc.
 
Oscar Wolter (Munich, Germany/Lycee Jean Renoir) also pulled down five rebounds to join Baitey as the team-high. Both Curran and Hind added four rebounds each.

As a team, the Saxons' offense was spearheaded by the 11 shots from beyond the 3-point arc. The defense of Alfred University kept the Knights from getting opportunities as the Saxons took 58 shots (14 more than the Knights) with 34 of them being 3-point attempts (Geneseo fired off only 15 shots from range). Geneseo went 14-of-20 from the charity stripe while AU hit 7-of-11. They also forced 13 turnovers while only giving up the ball to the Knights nine times.
 
The Saxons will next face SUNY Brockport on Saturday, January 25 at 2:00pm to close out the road weekend of Empire 8 action.