West Long Branch, N.J. - Senior guard Nate Champion (Logansport, Ind./Logansport) scored 30 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to a 75-66 victory over Division-I Monmouth University in an exhibition game on Sunday evening at the Multi-Purpose Activity Center.

Champion, whose point total was the highest in his collegiate career, tallied 15 points in each half. He pulled down five of his team-high nine rebounds after the intermission, while dishing out four assists and recording three steals. Junior forward Ryan Romich (Groton, Mass./Groton-Dunstable/Vermont Academy) registered 14 points (eight in the second half), eight rebounds and three steals. Sophomore guard Qwadere Lovell (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Mount Vernon) also scored 14 points, while dishing out six assists.

Monmouth, which is in its first year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference after going 10-21 last year as a member of the Northeast Conference, was led by Tyrone O'Garro, who posted a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. Max DiLeo and Justin Robinson each tallied nine points, with Robinson adding seven assists and five rebounds.

After the teams traded points over the opening 3:38, leading to a 6-6 tie, Champion nailed a three-pointer out of a media timeout to give the Dolphins the lead, which they would not relinquish the remainder of the game.

Le Moyne, which defeated a Division-I opponent in an exhibition game for the second time in five seasons (Syracuse - November 3, 2009 - 82-79), scored 10 of the next 12 points over a span of 4:04 to open up an 11-point advantage (19-8). Champion had the first four and the last two, while Romich had the four points in between on a pair of lay-ups.

The Hawks, who got points from 10 of their 14 players that appeared in the game, countered with six straight points and 14 of the next 18 to cut their deficit to one with 4:10 left in the game. O'Garro and Andrew Nicholas each had four points in the span for the Hawks as five different players accounted for the 14 points.

Champion and Romich answered with lay-ups to push the lead back to five with 3:26 left in the half. The teams then alternated points over the last three minutes of the half, leading to a 31-26 Le Moyne advantage at halftime.

After Monmouth's Deon Jones had a fast-break dunk to open the scoring in the second half and cut Le Moyne's lead to three, the Dolphins rattled off nine straight points over the next 2:31. Sophomore forward Connor Mahoney (Hanover, Mass./BC High/Brooks School) ignited the run with a three-pointer, graduate student center Jim Janson (Scotia, N.Y./Scotia-Glenville) followed with a dunk off a steal by Champion and then Champion converted a pair of lay-ups.

Monmouth responded with a 7-0 run to trim its deficit to five with 13:39 left, but that's as close as it would get the remainder of the game. Four different players accounted for the seven points.

After the teams split the game's next 14 points over a stretch of 2:28, the Dolphins ran off 11 consecutive points and 17 of the next 21 to open up a game-high 18-point lead (64-46) with 7:39 remaining. In the 11-0 spurt, Champion had four points, Lovell made a three-pointer and Janson and Romich each had two points, while over the 17-4 jaunt, Champion had eight points and Romich had four.

Following a jumper by Lovell that put the Dolphins up 66-48 with 6:34 left, the Hawks recorded runs of 5-0 and 8-0 around a Lovell three-pointer to pull within eight points with 2:34 remaining. Zac Tillman had three of the points in the 5-0 run on a conventional three-point play, while Justin Robinson buried back-to-back three-pointers in the 8-0 streak.

Romich made a lay-up, freshman forward Stan Buczek">Stan Buczek (Port Jervis, N.Y./Burke Catholic) knocked down a free throw, Mahoney converted a fast-break lay-up and Champion nailed a free throw to close out the Hawks.

Le Moyne, which fell by three points to Monmouth in an exhibition game prior to the 2003-04 season, opens the regular season on Tuesday, November 12 at Seton Hill University at 7:00 p.m.