Albany, N.Y. – The backcourt duo of senior Nate Gause (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie/Quinnipiac) and junior Qwadere Lovell (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Mount Vernon) combined for 58 points to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to an 81-53 win over Wilmington University on Sunday afternoon on the second day of the Northeast-10 Challenge presented by the Hilton Garden Inn-Albany Medical Center at The College of Saint Rose's Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium.

Gause tallied a career high for the second straight day, netting 32 points, 23 of which he scored in the second half, just as he did in Saturday's 30-point performance. He also pulled down a career-best 15 rebounds and dished out three assists. Lovell was the team's sparkplug in the first half, recording 20 of his career-high 26 points in the opening stanza, while handing out seven second-half assists and eight total. Senior forward Ryan Romich (Groton, Mass./Groton-Dunstable/Vermont Academy) was the third Dolphin to score in double digits, posting 12 points.

Sam Sanders came off the bench for the Wildcats to score 23 points, 12 of which came in the second half. Tyaire Ponzo-Meek also scored in double figures off the bench, registering 12 points. The starting five for the Wildcats combined for just nine points, whereas the Dolphins got 75 points from their starters.

The Dolphins, who started the season with back-to-back games scoring at least 80 points for the first time since the 1992-93 season, opened the game with the first six points and 10 of the opening 14 points. After Romich got Le Moyne on the board with a lay-up 10 seconds in, Lovell scored eight straight points over the next five and one-half minutes.

Wilmington answered with six straight points to knot the game for the first of just two times in the contest. Drew Johnson knocked down a jumper and then Sanders tallied four points.

After Gause and Ponzo-Meek traded three-pointers, the Dolphins scored nine of the next 10 points to take a 22-14 lead with 7:35 left in the first half. Sophomore forward Stan Buczek (Port Jervis, N.Y./Burke Catholic) made a free throw and Lovell followed with a jumper, two free throws, a lay-up and two more free throws.

The Wildcats crept within four on a pair of occasions, the second of which was 26-22 with 5:08 to go, but Lovell made a jumper, Gause hit two foul shots and then finished off an alley-oop by Lovell to give the Dolphins their largest lead of the half.

Lovell converted a jumper with 3.6 seconds left in the first half to give the Dolphins a 34-26 lead at the intermission.

Le Moyne scored the first 10 points and 16 of the first 21 points of the second half to extend its lead to 19 with 14:41 remaining. Gause had eight of the first 10, while Romich had the other eight in the extended streak.

After calling a timeout trailing 52-33 with 13:28 remaining, the Wildcats scored 10 straight points over 105 seconds to narrow their deficit to single digits and force a Le Moyne timeout. Ponzo-Meek started the run with a three-pointer, Sanders followed with a pair of baskets and then Kevin Ohen drilled a three-pointer with 11:35 to go.

Following four points from each team over the next two minutes, including Wilmington's last basket of the game with 9:29 left, the Dolphins rattled off 25 of the game's last 31 points to put the game away. Gause led the charge with 11 points, while Lovell added six and Buczek made a pair of free throws. Freshmen Russell Sangster (Rockville, Md./Bullis School) and Zach Quattro (Ambler, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) nailed three-pointers in the span for their first career points.

Le Moyne (2-0), which has recorded wins in its first two East Region contests for the first time since the 2009-10 season, opens its home schedule and Northeast-10 Conference action on Wednesday against the University of New Haven at 7:00 p.m.