Syracuse, N.Y. – The Le Moyne College men's basketball team clinched the Northeast-10 Conference Southwest Division title with a 75-60 victory over Southern Connecticut State University on Saturday afternoon at Ted Grant Court.
The Dolphins improve to 20-5 on the season, including a mark of 15-4 in conference action. In addition to the division title, the program's first in the 21 years in the NE10, the Dolphins also claimed the Southwest Division's top seed in the Northeast-10 Conference Championships, which start on Friday. The 20 wins are the most since the 2008-09 season and are the most in the regular season since the 1995-96 team was 21-5 at the end of the regular season. This is the seventh time in the program's history reaching at least 20 wins and the third to do it in the regular season.
Junior forward
Isaiah Eisendorf (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook/Gannon) registered his first double-double of the season with 17 points and a game-best 10 rebounds, with 15 of the points and seven of the rebounds coming in the second half. Eisendorf added four of the team's 10 assists. Junior guard
Tanner Hyland (South Portland, Maine/South Portland/Bridgton Academy) led all scorers with 19 points off the bench, including 13 in the second half. Junior guard
Russell Sangster (Rockville, Md./Bullis School) scored nine of his 13 points in the second half, with all nine coming from the foul line. The Dolphins drained 11 three-pointers in the contest - the 13th time this season with at least 10 - to increase their season total to a program-best 236. The previous high of 229 came during the 1993-94 season.
Joey Wallace led the Owls in the setback with 17 points, but failed to score in the second half. Jerry Luckett, Jr. also scored 17 points, 13 of which came in the second half, while adding a team-high eight rebounds. Michael Mallory, the 39-team East Region's leading scorer at 23.0 per game, was held to a season-low 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting from the field.
The Dolphins opened the game with the first four points and answered a Wallace three-pointer with an 11-4 spurt to take their largest lead of the opening half. Junior guard
Anthony Richards (New Castle, Pa./New Castle/West Virginia Wesleyan), senior forward
Stan Buczek (Port Jervis, N.Y./Burke Catholic) and Hyland all buried three-pointers in the stretch.
Southern Connecticut answered with a 12-3 run to take its first lead of the game. Wallace scored five of the points, while Mallory started the streak with a three-pointer.
Le Moyne used an 8-2 jaunt to regain a five-point lead with 3:58 left in the first half. Junior guard
Tyree Chambers (Bayreuth, Germany/Graf-Münster Gymnasium/Providence) and Hyland canned three-pointers around a lay-up by Sangster.
The Owls responded with eight straight points and 10 of the last 12 to take a 33-30 lead into intermission. Wallace posted five of the points and Mallory knocked down an elbow jumper with four seconds left for the final points.
The Dolphins tallied the first four points of the second half and 10 of the first 14 to take a three-point lead of their own, 40-37, with 14:55 to play. Eisendorf scored four points before Hyland put the Dolphins in front with a three-pointer.
Following four three-pointers by Southern Connecticut around seven Le Moyne points that gave the Owls a 49-47 lead with 9:05 remaining, the Dolphins rattled off 11 straight points (over 1:46) and 22 of the next 25 to take control of the game. Richards and Eisendorf drained three-pointers to start the streak, Eisendorf made two foul shots and then Hyland buried a three-pointer from the left wing in transition. After an Owls free throw, Sangster (4), Eisendorf (4) and Hyland (3) accounted for 11 points around two more SCSU free throws to give the Dolphins a 69-52 lead with 2:10 to go.
Luckett, Jr. answered with a tip-in with 1:55 left to snap a drought of 7:10 without a field goal.
Each team then scored six points over the final 1:49 to deliver the final score, which gave the Dolphins a sweep of the Owls for the first time since the 2009-10 season.
