Pioneers Close 2017 with Sixth Victory

The Alfred State men's basketball team closed out the 2017 portion of their season with a 71-64 victory at Penn College on Saturday afternoon. The Pioneers will head into the holiday break with a 6-3 mark and winners of five of their last six games.

The Pioneers started off fast scoring the first 12 points of the contest. They led by as many as 16, 23-7, in the 1st half before the Wildcats battled back and made it a 36-31 contest at the half. The Wildcats tied the game at 39-39 early in the 2nd half but answered right back with a 8 to 2 run to take the lead for good. Penn College got within one possession multiple times the rest of the way but the Pioneers always answered back. The blue & gold led 62-60 with just under four minutes remaining and finished the game on a 9 to 4 run to ice the game.

Alexshay Pearce (Rochester/Charlotte) was 9 for 14 from the field and connected on two of the Pioneers seven 3-pointers to led the team with 22 points. Dante Jordan (New York/Law and Public Service) finished with 11 points and seven boards, Josh Miller-LaBar (Groton/Lansing) hit three 3-pointers and finished with 9, and Tahaij Lewis (Rochester/Greece Olympia) chipped in nine off the bench. Marcus Rhett (Middletown) finished with eight while Juwan Toliver (Buffalo/McKinley) added six points and 10 asssits.

The Pioneers shot extremely well in the contest. They finished 30 for 57 from the field, 7 for 13 from three, and 4 for 6 from the foul line. They also held a 38 to 31 advantage on the boards.

Ben Sosa led the Wildcats with 20 points while Robert Young Jr. finished with 13. Carson Garvis came off the bench and chipped in 11. The Wildcats shot 31.9% from the field, 20% from three, and 63.6% from the foul line.

The blue & gold open up play in 2018 when they start a six-game roadtrip with a 7 p.m. contest at Keuka on January 4th.