Albany, N.Y. – Senior guard Nate Gause (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie/Quinnipiac) scored a career-high 30 points to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to an 81-77 season-opening win over Bloomfield College on Saturday afternoon in the first game of the Northeast-10 Challenge presented by Hilton Garden Inn-Albany Medical Center at The College of Saint Rose's Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium.

Gause tallied 23 of his career-high point total in the second half, while adding six rebounds and a pair of steals. His previous career high of 24 came at Franklin Pierce University on January 12, 2013. Junior guard Qwadere Lovell (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Mount Vernon) registered 15 points, nine assists and three steals. Senior forward Ryan Romich (Groton, Mass./Groton-Dunstable/Vermont Academy) and junior forward Connor Mahoney (Hanover, Mass./BC High/Brooks School) each recorded 14 points, while Romich had nine rebounds and Mahoney added six.

Matt Hall led the Bears in the setback with 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Clarence White came off the bench to register 16 points, all of which came in the first half. Claude Blue recorded a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Marvin Williams tallied 15 points.

The Dolphins opened the game with nine of the first 11 points over the opening three minutes. Lovell had five of the points, including a pair before the opening tip after Bloomfield was given a technical foul for dunking the ball in warm-ups, while sophomore forward Stan Buczek (Port Jervis, N.Y./Burke Catholic) had the other four.

The Bears battled back to take a 38-36 lead into the intermission.

After the teams traded baskets over the opening three minutes of the second half, Bloomfield scored seven straight points for a 49-41 lead with 14:57 left. Hall started the push with a three-pointer, while Nick Davidson and Blue followed with lay-ups.

The Dolphins responded with a 15-4 run to take the lead with 11:30 to play. Lovell started the comeback with a lay-up and then Gause followed with a lay-up, a three-pointer, another lay-up and then back-to-back three-pointers to tie the score and then give the Dolphins the lead.

Hall tied the score 1:42 later with a conventional three-point play, but Romich converted a lay-up and then Gause had a three-point play to push Le Moyne's lead to five (61-56) with 7:38 left.

The teams alternated points over the next 2:46 before Hall made a jumper and Blue scored in the paint to even the score at 69 with 3:32 left.

Romich tallied back-to-back lay-ups to give the lead back to his team, while Mahoney knocked down a three-pointer with 44 seconds left for a 76-71 advantage. Lovell (3) and Gause (2) made five foul shots over the final 18 seconds around baskets by Hall and Williams to seal the win for the Dolphins.

Le Moyne (1-0), which won its season-opener for the second time in three years after dropping five of its previous six, plays Wilmington University on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. in the third game of the Northeast-10 Challenge.