UTICA, NY – The Alfred University men's basketball was defeated narrowly by No. 4 SUNY Poly in 66-65 fashion as part of the first round of the Empire 8 Championship Tournament on Saturday afternoon.

Tyler Hind (Randolph, NY/Randolph) led Alfred University with a team-high 17 points along with five assists. Casey Curran (Allegany, NY/Allegany-Limestone) finished the game with 16 points and six rebounds. Zion Baitey (Morristown, NJ/Morristown) added seven points and 10 boards for AU.

"I think words are hard in moments like these," Head Coach Erich Kaempffe said. "First, hats off to SUNY Poly and Coach Schoener. They compete the right way. There's a lot of hurt in our locker room because our guys care so much. Our team deserves all the credit in the world for handling the adversity we dealt with all year. They handled adversity again today and we just came up one moment short over the course of 40 minutes – no one singular moment decided that game. I'm just so proud of them and feel honored to get to work with them every day."

Curran scored seven consecutive points for Alfred University (14-12, 10-6 Empire 8) to earn the initial lead. SUNY Poly (17-9, 11-5 Empire 8) responded with an 11-3 run to force the Saxons to play from behind. Hind and Kenneth Allison Jr (Troy, NY/Lansingburgh, NY) contributed with a combined 12 points in the first half, but AU was still behind 34-28 going into the break.  

Baitey opened scoring for the Saxons to begin the second half. A deep shot by Oscar Wolter (Munich, Germany/Lycee Jean Renoir) cut the deficit for Alfred University to a single possession at the 16:14 mark. The Wildcats put together an 11-0 run, but the Saxons remained resilient with baskets by Allison, Charles and Curran to trail by one point with 1:34 remaining in regulation. Alfred University nearly sent the game into overtime in the closing seconds, but came up short in a contested matchup.