Mansfield, Pa. – Freshman guard Nate Champion (Logansport, Ind./Logansport) scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to a 70-67 win over Mansfield on Saturday evening in non-conference action at Decker Gymnasium.

Champion, the fourth different Dolphin to lead the team in scoring this season, tallied 13 of his career-best total in the opening half. Senior forward Kevin Roth (Lake View, N.Y./St. Francis HS) and junior guard Chris Johnson (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst) each scored 14 points in the contest. Roth registered his third double-double of the year by adding a game-high 11 rebounds. Junior guard James Cormier (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull/Proctor Academy (N.H.)) dished a career-high 13 assists in the contest, the most by a Dolphin since Rob Thorpe '04 registered a school-record 15 in a 98-86 win over Alderson-Broaddus on November 22, 2002.

Tony Fannick led the Mounties with 17 points, including 11 in the first half. Yuseff Carr posted 16 points, 10 of which came after halftime, while adding eight rebounds.

After Anthony Derrison made back-to-back lay-ups over the first 1:15 of the second half to give Mansfield a 38-37 lead, Champion buried his fourth three-pointer of the contest to begin a back-and-forth stretch of action. During the span, the score was tied twice and the lead changed hands three times.

Following a lay-up by Lavail Owens, the son of former Syracuse stand-out Billy Owens, that gave the Mounties a 47-46 lead at the 14:50 mark, Johnson connected on his fourth three-pointer of the game to ignite a 9-2 Le Moyne run over the next four and one-half minutes. Champion followed with a basket, senior swingman Can Ozkaner (Ankara, Turkey/Tilton School (N.H.)) connected on a pair of free throws and Roth closed the streak by converting two attempts from the foul line.

Mansfield answered back with 10 of the next 13 points to take a 59-58 lead with 6:28 remaining in the game. Carr led the charge with four points, while Josh Dupuy gave the Mounties the lead with a jumper.

The teams then traded points over the next 3:36, resulting in a 67-67 tie, the 12th and final tie of the game. Derrison, who spent six and one-half minutes on the bench with four fouls, drilled a three-pointer from the left wing 12 seconds after re-entering the game. With the shot clock about to expire on Le Moyne's next possession, Champion converted a three-pointer from the right corner to knot the score at 67.

Following a Mansfield turnover, Cormier hit a foul shot with 2:20 left to give the Dolphins the lead for good. After the Mounties missed their next four shots, Roth made a pair of foul shots with 4.9 seconds remaining to deliver the final shot. Off the in-bounds, the Dolphins fouled Dupuy with 2.3 seconds to go. After Dupuy missed the first free throw and intentionally missed the second, he got his own rebound in the left corner and fired a fade-away three-pointer. The shot bounced off the front edge of the rim and fell off to secure the win for the Dolphins.

In the first half, the score was tied seven times and the lead changed hands on eight occasions. Champion connected on his first three-pointer of the game at the 14:59 mark to knot the score at eight.

After Mansfield took a 21-17 lead with 8:53 to go on a Fannick three-pointer, the Dolphins scored eight straight points to take a four point lead of their own. Ozkaner and Champion hit consecutive jumpers to tie the score before sophomore forward Michael Goodman (Syracuse, N.Y./Christian Brothers Academy) made a lay-up and Ozkaner converted a pull-up jumper from the right elbow with 6:10 left.

The Mounties scored eight of the game's next 12 points to knot the score for the fifth time. Breland Roach came off the bench to nail a pair of three-pointers, the second of which evened the score at 29 with 3:56 left.

After the teams split the next 10 points for a 34-34 tie with 41 seconds to go, Johnson buried a three-pointer to give the Dolphins a 37-34 halftime lead.

Le Moyne (3-6), which beat Mansfield, 74-72, at home last year, closes out non-conference action on Sunday, December 19 against C.W. Post at 2:00 p.m.