West Haven, Conn. - Junior forward Kevin Roth (Lake View, N.Y./St. Francis HS) hit a pair of foul shots with 7.9 seconds remaining to lead the 20th-ranked Le Moyne College men's basketball team to an 80-79 win at New Haven in Northeast-10 Conference play on Sunday afternoon at Charger Gymnasium.
Roth finished the contest with eight points and grabbed four rebounds. Senior All-American Laurence Ekperigin (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Walter Panas) finished with a game-high 30 points, 12 rebounds, two blocks and a pair of steals. Graduate student guard Damani Corbin (Brooklyn, N.Y./Frederick Douglass) posted 19 points, dished out five assists and registered a career-high five steals. Cassius Chaney led the Chargers with 20 points and seven rebounds, while Robert Jamerson scored 18 points and Darryl Greene tallied 13 points.
Roth's free throws capped a back-and-forth final three minutes. New Haven's Kelvin Jackson dunked the ball after a Greene missed lay-up and followed with a foul shot to tie the score at 72 with 2:52 remaining in the contest. Sophomore guard Chris Johnson (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst) and Greene traded a pair of foul shots on each team's next possession to tie the score for the ninth time in the game with 1:45 left. Ekperigin drilled a pair of shots from the free throw line and Jamerson countered with a lay-up on the other end to force another tie. After Corbin hit a lay-up with 35 seconds remaining, Jamerson scored in the paint after grabbing an offensive rebound and made his ensuing free throw with 16.7 to give New Haven its only lead of the second half. With the ball at the top of the key, Roth was fouled by Chaney to go to the foul line, where he knocked down his only two free-throw attempts of the contest. Chaney's twisting three-pointer in the final second was off the mark to seal the win for the Dolphins.
The Dolphins jumped out of the gates in the second half to open up a 12-point advantage. Senior forward Kevin Hassett (Phoenix, Ariz./Desert Mountain/Iona) hit a pair of three-pointers to ignite the run. After Chaney hit a three-pointer for the Chargers, Ekperigin made a lay-up and dunked the ball off an alley-oop from sophomore guard James Cormier (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull/Proctor Academy (N.H.)) and Corbin converted a fast-break lay-up to put the Dolphins up 50-40.
After the Dolphins extended their lead to 58-46 with 13:39 remaining on an Ekperigin lay-up, the Chargers used an extended 26-14 streak over the next 10:47 to knot the score on Jackson's three-point play. Jackson led the run with 10 points, while Greene scored five points and Chaney added four. Ekperigin scored 11 of the 14 points in the stretch for the Dolphins.
With the Dolphins holding a 7-5 lead early in the first half, Chaney hit a jumper to start a 10-0 run by the Chargers. Mike Stys and Chaney knocked down three-pointers and Greene converted a lay-up to cap the run. Le Moyne responded with a 15-7 streak of its own to even the score at 22 apiece with 7:58 left in the half. Corbin scored seven in the stretch, while Johnson drilled a pair of three-pointers.
The two squads exchanged baskets to close out the half with the Dolphins leading 38-37. Ekperigin scored nine points over the final 5:34 of the stanza, including a jumper with six seconds left to give the Dolphins the halftime lead.
Le Moyne (4-1, NE-10 2-1), which has won 11 consecutive meetings with the Chargers, returns to action on Wednesday, Dec. 2 at Pace at 7:30 p.m.
-agate-
#20 Le Moyne 80, New Haven 79
#20 Le Moyne (4-1, NE-10 2-1) 38 42 - 80
New Haven (0-4, NE-10 0-3) 37 42 - 79
