Erie, Pa. – Junior guard Tim Leavell (Marion, Ind./Marion/State Fair C.C.) scored a game-high 24 points to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to a 76-66 victory over Mercyhurst University in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center.

Leavell scored 16 of his game-best point total in the second half. Senior forward Tom Brown (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) recorded his fifth double-double of the season with a season-best 19 points and 10 rebounds. Senior guard Ryan Roland (Syracuse, N.Y./Westhill/Mercyhurst) tallied 17 points, including 11 in the second half, and six assists in his return to the Mercyhurst Athletic Center.

MiyKah McIntosh led the Lakers in the loss with 19 points, including 11 in the second half. Zach McIntire recorded 15 points, while Trystan Pratapas added 11 points off the bench. Joel Ufele pulled down a game-best 11 rebounds.

After Mercyhurst registered a trio of four-point leads over the first nine minutes, the last of which came at 14-10 with 11:14 remaining, the Dolphins rattled off 14 of the next 17 points to take the lead. Leavell scored eight of the points in the span with a basket in the paint and a pair of three-pointers.

Following a basket by McIntosh to get the Lakers within 26-22 with 5:22 left, the Dolphins scored 10 of the next 13 points for their first 11-point lead of the game. Brown and Roland made three-pointers, sophomore forward BB Chuks-Mady (Hamilton, Ontario/GTA Prep) had a put-back lay-up and then Brown converted a fast-break lay-up off a feed from Roland to force a Mercyhurst timeout with 1:30 to go.

The teams traded baskets the remainder of the half, which was capped by a lay-up at the buzzer by McIntire to get the Lakers within 38-29 at the intermission.

After a basket by each team over the initial minute of the second half, the Dolphins rattled off a 20-6 run to take their first 20-point lead of the contest. Roland hit back-to-back three-pointers, Brown made a lay-up, Leavell drained a pair of three-pointers around another trifecta by Roland and Brown capped the streak with a three-pointer to force a Mercyhurst timeout with the Dolphins leading 60-37 with 12:03 left.

Pratapas drained a three-pointer out of the timeout, but Brown made two lay-ups to give the Dolphins their largest lead of the game, 64-40, with 9:05 to play.

Mercyhurst answered with 12 straight points and 19 of the next 21 to close within seven at 66-59 with 3:19 remaining. McIntire had eight points in the stretch, McIntosh scored seven points and Nicholas Lang made two shots.

Leavell responded with eight points over a span of 1:19 around a lay-up by McIntosh to extend Le Moyne's lead back to 13 (74-61) with 1:30 remaining. He made a three-pointer, a conventional three-point play and then added two more free throws.

Roland capped Le Moyne's scoring with two free throws with 23 seconds left, while Michael Bradley scored the final points of the contest.

Le Moyne (7-4), which improves to 17-1 all-time against the Lakers, closes out the 2019 portion of its schedule on Friday at Lake Erie College at 7:00 p.m.