Springfield, Mass. – Zekiah Owens scored 21 points to lead American International College to a 74-70 come-from-behind win over the Le Moyne College men's basketball team in the Northeast-10 Conference opener for both teams on Wednesday night at Butova Gymnasium.

Redshirt junior guard Malik Garner (Midland, Mich./H.H. Dow/Sunrise Christian Academy/Saginaw Valley State) led three Dolphins in double figures with 17 points, including 12 in the first half, while adding six rebounds and four assists. Junior forward Tom Brown (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) scored eight points in each half and finished the contest with seven rebounds. Junior forward Kobi Nwandu (York, Pa./Northeastern York/East Stroudsburg) posted 12 points and five rebounds.

Owens tallied 11 of his game-high point total in the second half, while adding five rebounds and two blocks. Jordan Vidal posted 16 points, including 11 in the second half, and grabbed five rebounds. Andrew Anderson reached double digits with 10 points.

After Anderson hit a pair of three-pointers in the opening 4:39 of play to give AIC an 8-5 lead, the Dolphins scored six straight points and 11 of the next 15 to take a 16-12 lead. Five Dolphins accounted for the 11 points in the span.
 
American International countered with 10 of the next 14 points to take its final lead of the first half. Vidal had five of the points, while Branislav Terzic hit a three-pointer for a 22-20 lead with 6:14 left in the half.

Le Moyne countered with a14-6 run to take its largest lead of the half, 34-28, with 48 seconds left. Garner had the first seven points of the run for the Dolphins, Brown had four points and then Garner capped the streak with a conventional three-point play.

Owens made a lay-up with 29 seconds left to get the Yellow Jackets within 34-30 at halftime.
 
Following two free throws by the Dolphins to start the scoring in the second half, the Yellow Jackets scored six straight points to tie the score for the fifth time in the game. Vidal had a pair of lay-ups around a jumper by Owens.

The Dolphins answered with five straight points and nine of the next 11 to push their lead to seven with 15:04 to go. Brown had four of the points, while graduate student guard Tyree Chambers (Bayreuth, Germany/Graf-Münster Gymnasium/Providence) buried a three-pointer and Nwandu made two free throws.

After the teams alternated runs over the next 3:14, Xion Golding hit a three-pointer and Logan Santiago made a jumper to get the Yellow Jackets within three, 53-50, with 11:00 remaining.

Le Moyne countered with seven straight points for its largest lead of the game. Brown made a lay-up and then junior guard Zay Jennings (Allentown, Pa./Allentown Central Catholic/Caldwell) hit a jumper in the paint and a fast-break three-pointer to give the Dolphins a 60-50 lead with 9:45 remaining.

American International responded with 10 straight points and 18 of the next 20 to take control of the game. Santiago and Vidal made three-pointers, Terzic hit a jumper and then Owens made two free throws with 6:02 left to even the score at 60 each.

Following a lay-up by the Dolphins to take the lead back, Vidal connected on a pair of foul shots to tie the score again and then Anderson made a lay-up with 3:59 left for the lead. Terzic and Adonis Williams followed with jumpers to give the Yellow Jackets a 68-62 lead with 1:45 remaining.

The Dolphins scored four straight points to get within 68-66 with 35 seconds left, but Golding, Vidal and Owens each went 2-for-2 from the foul line in one-and-one situations to seal the victory.
 
Le Moyne (1-1, 0-1 NE10), which dropped its first NE10 road game for the third time in four years, is back on the road on Saturday at Southern Connecticut State University at 3:30 p.m.