Colchester, Vt. – Sophomore guard Nate Champion (Logansport, Ind./Logansport) scored 21 points to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to a 70-64 win at Saint Michael's on Saturday afternoon in Northeast-10 Conference action at the Ross Sports Center.

Champion, who scored 12 of his points in the second half, pulled down seven rebounds and dished out five assists. Classmate Brian Zapisek (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius) recorded a double-double with 20 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Sophomore center Jim Janson (Scotia, N.Y./Scotia-Glenville) was the third Dolphin in double figures with 12 points.

James Cambronne came off the bench to score 19 points, while adding six rebounds and five blocks. Corey Crawford tallied 16 points, six rebounds and five assists, while Mike Holton, Jr., the conference's leading scorer, recorded 12 points.

After the team's traded three-pointers to open the game's scoring, the Dolphins scored seven straight points. Champion made a jumper, junior guard Derrek Tartt (Chicago, Ill./Oak Park Fenwick/UAlbany) made a lay-up and Zapisek followed with a three-pointer at the 15:16 mark.

Following seven and one-half minutes of back-and-forth action led to a 23-15 Le Moyne lead, the Purple Knights scored 14 of the next 16 points in a span of 3:42 for a 29-25 advantage. Crawford ignited the run with a jumper, Mike Thompson made a jumper, Crawford drilled a three-pointer, Thompson made a lay-up for the lead, Cambronne made a jumper and Holton, Jr. capped the run by nailing a three-pointer.

Saint Michael's (7-12, 6-9 NE-10) pushed its lead to 33-28 with 1:08 left in the half on a Cambronne jumper, but the Dolphins answered with the half's final five points to knot the score at 33 at the intermission. Champion converted a pair of free throws with 51 seconds remaining and Tartt drilled a three-pointer from the left wing with 1.5 seconds to go.

After the Dolphins scored five of the first nine points of the second half, Zapisek hit back-to-back three-pointers. The Purple Knights countered with nine consecutive points to regain the lead. Dom Ditlefsen buried a three-pointer, Cambronne made a pair of jump shots to tie the score and Crawford followed with two free throws to take the lead with 13:21 left in the contest.

Champion answered with a three-pointer on Le Moyne's next possession to take the lead back, which it would not relinquish. Janson then scored six points around two free throws from Holton, Jr. for a five-point edge with 8:42 remaining.

Le Moyne's lead bounced between two and four points over the next three and one-half minutes before Zapisek made a lay-up for a 62-55 advantage with 5:02 left.  The Purple Knights scored six straight points in a stretch of 3:38 to get within a point with 1:24 left. Holton, Jr. had four straight free throws and Cambronne had a tip-in.

Tartt converted two free throws and Champion followed with four foul shots to extend Le Moyne's lead back to seven points with 23 seconds left. After Crawford knocked down a three-pointer with 13 seconds left to make the score 68-64, senior guard James Cormier">James Cormier (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull/Proctor Academy (N.H.)) converted two free throws for the game's final points.

Le Moyne (11-8, 7-8 NE-10), which fell to the Purple Knights at home in the first round of the Northeast-10 Conference tournament last year, return home to face The College of Saint Rose on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The game will be the 12th contest of the year-long "Upstate Challenge" between the two institutions, which the Golden Knights currently lead 6.5 to 2.5.