Garden City, N.Y. – Senior guard Nate Champion (Logansport, Ind./Logansport) scored his 1000th career point as the Le Moyne College men's basketball team defeated Adelphi University, 75-59, on Saturday afternoon in Northeast-10 Conference action at the Center for Recreation and Sport.
Champion, who became the 40th player in the program's history to record 1000 points with a three-pointer from the left corner with 20 seconds left in the first half, finished with 10 points, a team-high eight rebounds and seven assists. Junior guard Naté Gause (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie/Quinnipiac) registered a game high-tying 23 points, one shy of his career high, while adding six rebounds and a game-high four steals. Graduate student center Jim Janson (Scotia, N.Y./Scotia-Glenville) and sophomore guard Qwadere Lovell (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Mount Vernon) each scored 14 points, while Janson had seven rebounds and four blocked shots.
Duane Morgan led the Panthers in the loss with 23 points, 20 of which came in the second half. Ryan DeNicola posted 14 points and a game-best nine rebounds, while Greg Davis came off the bench to score 13 points, including nine in the first half.
After the teams split the first 24 points of the game over the opening 5:18, the Dolphins scored eight straight points to take the lead for good. Janson, Romich, Lovell and Gause each had baskets in the run.
Davis ended the streak with a three-pointer with 10:12 to go, but the Dolphins responded with a 10-4 run to take their first double-digit lead of the game with 4:48 left in the half. Champion had five of the points, while sophomore forward Connor Mahoney (Hanover, Mass./BC High/Brooks School) nailed a three-pointer and Janson made a basket.
Adelphi countered with seven points in a row to cut its deficit to four with 1:54 to play. Davis made a three-pointer and then DeNicola had two lay-ups.
Janson had a conventional three-point play and Champion drilled the corner three-pointer for his 1000th point around an Anthony Libroia jumper to give the Dolphins a 36-28 lead at halftime.
Following back-and-forth play over the opening six and one-half minutes of the second half, which resulted in a 45-39 Le Moyne lead, the Dolphins ran off 10 straight points and 24 of the next 30 to blow the game open. Gause hit back-to-back three-pointers to start the 10-0 run and Champion and Janson followed with baskets for a 55-39 advantage with 11:01 left.
After the teams each scored four points over the next two minutes, Gause, junior forward Ryan Romich (Groton, Mass./Groton-Dunstable/Vermont Academy) and Lovell each scored two points to push the lead to 22. Following a DeNicola lay-up, Gause drilled a three-pointer and Lovell made a free to give the Dolphins their largest lead of the game (69-45) with 5:24 left.
Adelphi outscored the Dolphins, 14-6, over the final five minutes to deliver the final score. Morgan had nine of the 14 points for the Panthers, while Lovell had four of Le Moyne's six.
Le Moyne (7-5, 4-2 NE-10), which won at Adelphi for the first time since 1988 (0-6 in between, including 0-4 by an average of 15 points as NE-10 opponents), returns home to face Bentley University on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
