Pioneers Continue to Roll

The Alfred State men's basketball team won their 4th straight and 7th out of their last eight as they defeated SUNY Poly 76-71 on Saturday afternoon. The Pioneers are now 8-3 on the year.

The Pioneers scored the first eight points of the game and never trailed the rest of the way. They led 31-28 at the half. They pushed the lead to as many as 17, 51-34 with 13:40 remaining. The blue & gold led 68-54 with just under five minutes left when the Wildcats got back into the game and cut the lead down to one, 72-71 with 33 seconds remaining. The Pioneers were 4 for 6 from the foul line and held the Wildcats off the board in the final seconds to secure the victory.

Alexshay Pearce (Rochester/Charlotte) led the Pioneers with 17 points on the day while Juwan Toliver (Buffalo/McKinley) narrowly missed a triple-double. Toliver finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists. Marcus Rhett (Middletown) finished with 15 points while Tyler Elliott (Perry) chipped in nine points and nine rebounds. Owen Spencer (Perry) came off the bench and chipped in six points and six boards.

The Pioneers shot 44.6% from the field and 27.3% from three. They struggled at the foul line hitting only 15 of 32 attempts but did hold a 57 to 32 advantage on the boards.

Blake Haga came off the bench and led the Wildcats with 18 points. Tymeek Mackie and Redell Freeman both finished with 12 and Kevin Williams chipped in 11. Poly shot 38.8% from the field, 30.8% from three, and 64.7% from the line.

The blue and gold will look to continue their solid play on Monday when they play a 1 p.m. matinee vs. SUNY ESF. The game will be played at Onondaga CC.