Syracuse, N.Y. – Redshirt freshman guard Christian Davis (Denver, Colo./Mullen/New Hampton School) scored 18 points to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to a 77-72 victory over Southern New Hampshire University in Northeast-10 Conference action on Saturday afternoon at Ted Grant Court.

"First off, obviously feels great to be back at home and winning at home," said head coach Nate Champion. "After dropping three in a row (at home), that was a huge win for us and I thought the biggest thing for us was just the way that we prepared for the game. We had very intense practices over the past week. It wasn't anything personal, it was just something that we really needed. And we needed to match that energy and effort on the floor today and I think you saw that."

Davis tallied 10 of his team-high point total in the second half, while grabbing all eight of his rebounds after intermission to go along with two blocks and two steals. Redshirt freshman guard Kevin Constant (Lawrence, Mass./Central Catholic/Tilton School), who came off the bench for the first time this season, recorded 11 points, three rebounds and three assists. Junior forward Xavier Wilson (Spring Valley, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac/The Hotchkiss School/Central Connecticut State) connected on five of six shots from the field en route to 11 points in 17 minutes off the bench, while pulling down four rebounds, blocking two shots and dishing out two assists.

Second-year freshman Aaron Gray and third-year sophomore Jacari Sanders led the Penmen in the setback with 20 points each, while Gray posted seven rebounds. Gray recorded 13 of his points in the second half, while Sanders had 12 after halftime. Noah Kamba was the third Penmen in double digits with 11.

After Southern New Hampshire scored the first five points of the game, the Dolphins answered with 12 of the next 15 to take a 12-8 lead with 13:33 left in the half. Five Dolphins scored in the streak, led by a pair of baskets in the paint by redshirt freshman forward Isaiah Elmore (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Catholic).

Following four points from each team over the next five minutes, the Penmen ran off 10 points in a row to take their largest lead of the game. Gray scored four straight points to tie the score and then Kamba drained back-to-back three-pointers for a 22-16 advantage with 6:31 remaining in the half.

Le Moyne responded with 16 consecutive points for its first double-digit lead of the game. Davis drilled consecutive three-pointers to tie the score and then Wilson hit one from the right wing. Following a free throw by Elmore, graduate student forward Armon Nasseri (Youngstown, Ohio/Spire Academy/Mercyhurst/Roberts Wesleyan) scored four straight points and then Constant capped the run with a jumper in the paint with 2:01 left in the stanza.

Sanders hit a three-pointer to snap a scoring drought of five minutes to get the Penmen within seven, but third-year sophomore guard Jeremiah Washington (Chicago, Ill./Bogan/Ferris State) had a dunk with five seconds left to put the Dolphins up 34-25 at halftime.

The Penmen scored eight of the first 10 points in the second half to close within 36-33 with 16:52 left in the game. Gray scored the first six points and then fifth-year senior Corry Long had a put-back lay-up.

The Dolphins answered with three-pointers from Davis and Washington to push their lead back to nine.

After Gray and Washington traded threes, the Penmen got six points from three players to pull back within three at 45-42 with 13:20 remaining.

Le Moyne scored four points in a row to go back up by seven with 10:35 left before the teams traded points over the next three and one-half minutes as Le Moyne's lead bounced between four and seven points.

Following two Le Moyne free throws to go up 57-50 with 7:10 left, the Penmen scored six in a row to get within one with 4:32 to play as Sanders made a pair of jumpers in the paint around two foul shots by Long.

Le Moyne regained control of the game with the next seven points over a span of 1:40. Third-year sophomore forward Luke Sutherland (Syracuse, N.Y./West Genesee/Siena/Bryant) made back-to-back lay-ups in transition and then Constant had a conventional three-point play off an offensive rebound with 2:45 left.

After seven points by each team over the next 1:40, the Penmen scored four points in six seconds to get within four, but the Dolphins went 7-of-8 from the foul line over the final 44 seconds to put the game away.

Le Moyne (7-6, 3-3 NE10) is back in action on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. against Saint Michael's College.


Additional quotes from Nate Champion
"We held some of the best scorers in the league to pretty limited numbers. (Matt) Becht ended up with seven, I think he had two at halftime, he's averaging 13 a game. Aaron Gray ends up having a good game for them, but I thought we limited them, and we turned them over 15 times, they only average nine turnovers on the year. Just a big kudos to our defense. Our energy and effort on the defensive end was tremendous. Every shot, I thought for the most part, was contested. And we just made it very difficult for them to score the ball, and that's something we really preached over the last week.

"And I think you just see the balance on our team as well, I mean all ten guys that played, all ten scored. The thing that made me the happiest was all ten guys had multiple rebounds. I think the only one who didn't was Jeremiah and he had one, so every single person ends up with a rebound, nine out of the ten end up with multiple rebounds, and the best thing about it is your 5'10" guard is the one with the least amount, which has not always been the case this year. So, great energy, great effort for us, a huge win. It was good to finally get on the winning side in January, after a long pause, and then [the loss] last week, so overall very happy with the team, and excited for the way we prepared, and hopefully we can do that going in to Wednesday."