Syracuse, N.Y. – The backcourt duo of senior
Naté Gause (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie/Quinnipiac) and junior
Qwadere Lovell (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Mount Vernon) combined for 47 points to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to a 77-72 win over Assumption College on Tuesday afternoon in Northeast-10 Conference play at Ted Grant Court.
Gause reached the 20-point plateau for the ninth time this season with a game-high 25 points, including 14 in the second half, while adding five rebounds, four steals and three assists. Lovell eclipsed the 20-point mark for the eighth time and for the third straight game with 22 points, 17 of which he scored after the intermission. Sophomore forward
Stan Buczek (Port Jervis, N.Y./Burke Catholic) was the third Dolphin in double figures with 12 points, while grabbing a game-high eight rebounds.
Assumption had four of its starters score in double figures in the loss. Karl Ziegler led the way with 18 points, 12 of which he scored in the second half. Marcus Murray and Kamali Bey tallied 16 and 15 points, respectively, before fouling out, while Terrance Bobb-Jones posted 11 points, six rebounds, a game-high six assists and three steals.
The teams opened the game by going back and forth over the opening seven minutes of the game with the lead changing sides eight times.
After Gause had a put-back lay-up to give the Dolphins a 9-8 lead with 14:55 left in the first half, Assumption rattled off a 21-4 run over 6:49 to take a 16-point lead. Bey tallied nine of the points in the stretch, while Murray had five, Ziegler had four and Jack Sullivan nailed a three-pointer.
The Dolphins, who beat Assumption at home for the first time since February 19, 2011, answered back with 11 of the next 12 points to get within six points with just over two minutes left in the half. Gause scored the first four, Buczek made two free throws, senior forward
Ryan Romich (Groton, Mass./Groton-Dunstable/Vermont Academy) converted a lay-up and then Lovell hit his first three-pointer since the opening game of the season.
Murray snapped Assumption's span of 5:03 without a field goal with a lay-up at the 1:53 mark, but Lovell made a pair of free throws with 1:18 left to get the Dolphins within 32-26 at the intermission.
After the teams split the first 16 points of the second half over the opening 2:45, the Dolphins recorded eight straight points to take their first lead since 9-8. Lovell started the 8-0 run with a three-pointer, freshman guard
Russell Sangster (Rockville, Md./Bullis School) made two free throws and then Gause drilled a three-pointer off a feed from Sangster with 15:45 left.
Murray tied the score with a jumper with 15:07 left, but the Dolphins tallied seven of the next nine points as part of an 18-8 run that covered 4:48 and resulted in a 60-50 lead for the Dolphins. Lovell tallied five of the 18 points, while Romich and Sangster each had four points, junior forward
Connor Mahoney (Hanover, Mass./BC High/Brooks School) nailed a three-pointer and Gause made two free throws.
Assumption responded with an 11-2 run to get within one point with 5:44 to play. Declan Soukup registered five of the points, Ziegler scored four points and then Bobb-Jones made a lay-up.
After the teams traded points over the next minute, the Dolphins scored five straight points to push their lead back to six with 2:24 remaining. Lovell made two free throws, Mahoney made one and then Buczek had a put-back lay-up.
The Greyhounds answered with seven of the next nine points to close back within a point with 37 seconds left. Jimmy Zenevitch hit a jumper, Ziegler recorded a conventional three-point play and then Bobb-Jones made a lay-up after an Assumption timeout.
Le Moyne made four free throws over the last 33 seconds to put the game away. Sangster converted a pair with 33 seconds left and then Gause knocked down two foul shots with eight seconds remaining.
Le Moyne (12-4, 6-3 NE-10), which has won 12 of its first 16 games for the first time since the 1997-98 season, is back in action on Saturday at Merrimack College at 3:00 p.m.
