Men's Basketball Seniors Honored Pregame

Syracuse, N.Y. – The Le Moyne College men's basketball team earned the ninth seed in the Northeast-10 Conference Championship on Tuesday night by closing out the regular season with a 83-52 win over Pace University at Ted Grant Court. The Dolphins, who had four players finish in double figures, travel to UMass Lowell on Friday night for a first round match-up. In their only meeting of the regular season, the River Hawks topped the Dolphins, 71-68, on January 23 in Syracuse.

Le Moyne (13-13, 10-12 NE-10) swept the season series with Pace for the first time in the 16 years that the Dolphins and the Setters have been in the Northeast-10 together (12 multiple-game series) and for the first time as conference opponents since 1987-88 when the two institutions were members of the Mideast Conference (20 total years together). As NE-10 opponents, the Setters hold a 16-12 edge in the series, posting two season sweeps, while splitting in the other nine years, including each of the last six years.

Junior guard Nate Champion (Logansport, Ind./Logansport) led the Dolphins with 19 points, 12 of which came in the first half, while grabbing six rebounds and dishing out five assists. Sophomore forward Ryan Romich (Groton, Mass./Groton-Dunstable/Vermont Academy) tallied 14 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Freshman guard Qwadere Lovell (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Mount Vernon) registered 14 points off the bench, while grabbing five rebounds, dishing out three assists and recording two steals. Freshman forward Connor Mahoney (Hanover, Mass./BC High/Brooks School) recorded his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.

Salvatore Vitello led the Setters with 16 points, including eight in each half. Eric Dansby came off the bench to score 15 points and record three steals, while Denzel Primus-Devonish posted 10 points.

Pace opened the game with the first five points and eight of the first 12 points over the opening 3:02. After Lovell and graduate student center Jim Janson (Scotia, N.Y./Scotia-Glenville) entered the game, the Dolphins scored nine consecutive points and 36 of the game's next 41 points over a span of 13:15. All seven Dolphins that played during the outburst scored, led by 10 points from Champion. Lovell and Romich each had six points in the span, while Mahoney had five points.

Following a Pace timeout with 3:06 left after a coast-to-coast lay-up by Champion, the Setters scored seven straight points to trim their deficit to 20. Dansby and Vitello ended the spurt with back-to-back three-pointers.

Champion made a fast-break lay-up and Lovell made a pair of foul shots to end Le Moyne's scoring in the half as the Dolphins took a 44-22 lead into the intermission.

After the Setters scored five of the first nine points of the second half, the Dolphins rattled off 21 of the next 23 points to take a game-high 40-point lead with 7:17 remaining in the game. Champion had seven points in the stretch, Mahoney tallied five points, Romich made two shots in the paint, senior guard Gamal Mohamed (North Plainfield, N.J./Immaculata) buried a three-pointer and Lovell ignited the run with a jumper.

Pace scored 19 of the game's last 30 points to deliver the final score. Dansby and Vitello led the charge with nine and eight points, respectively, while Jaylen Mann ended the game's scoring with a dunk.

Prior to the game, the Dolphin Athletic Association honored the senior class of Mohamed, Derrek Tartt">Derrek Tartt (Chicago, Ill./Oak Park Fenwick/UAlbany) and Colin Sekal (Elkhart, Ind./Veritas Christian (N.C.)/Wagner) for their contributions to the program.