Garden City, N.Y. – First-year graduate student guard Isaiah Salter (Charlotte, N.C./Central Cabarrus/American International/Adelphi) scored 20 points to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to a 76-65 victory over Adelphi University in Northeast-10 Conference action on Tuesday evening at the Center for Recreation and Sport.

"I think the biggest thing for us was just continuing to stay the course, continuing to wade through the waters, obviously we knew at home we're a little more comfortable," said head coach Nate Champion '14. "As a young team, it is always more comfortable to play at home, we were going through the same stuff last year, we were way more competitive at home than we were on the road and Adelphi had an extremely talented team. I think (Adelphi head coach) David Duke did a great job of recruiting those young guys and you can tell they're going to be pretty good here in the future and probably at the end of the season they'll be playing pretty well, but our guys did a good job - we took care of the basketball in the second half. Nine turnovers in the first half, only four in the second half. And we only had three assists in the first half but we finished the game with 14."

"Isaiah Salter was so poised today, and that's what I really like about him is, when he's comfortable and playing, obviously the first half got him going. Personally, I think it was the technical foul shot to start the game that got him going."

Salter registered 18 of his game-high point total in 13 minutes of action in the first half, while also recording a game-best six assists. Fourth-year junior forward Luke Sutherland (Syracuse, N.Y./West Genesee/Siena/Bryant) scored seven of his 11 points in the second half to go with six rebounds and three blocks. First-year graduate student guard Nate McClure (Houston, Texas/Concordia Lutheran/Texas State/State Fair C.C./IUPUI) was the third Dolphin in double figures with 10 points, including eight after halftime.

Ronnie Silva led the Panthers in the loss with 15 points, 11 of which came in the second half. Dayshaun Walton recorded 10 of his 14 points in the first half, while Elijah Lewis finished the contest with 10 points.

After the teams split the first eight points of the game, including a free throw by Salter before the opening tip due to an administrative technical foul on Adelphi for a malfunctioning shot clock, the Panthers scored seven of the next nine points to open up a five-point advantage. Aristotelis Sotiriou accounted for five of the points for Adelphi.

First-year graduate student guard Mike DePersia (Cherry Hill, N.J./Haddonfield Memorial/IUPUI) answered with a three-pointer and a conventional three-point play to put the Dolphins in front, 12-11, with 9:27 left in the half.

The teams then went back and forth over the next six minutes as the margin bounced between three points in favor of the Panthers and two points in favor of the Dolphins.

After the score was tied at 25, Salter drilled a pair of three-pointers around an Adelphi lay-up and then he knocked down a jumper after a Panther three-pointer for a 33-30 lead. Sutherland then made two foul shots before Silva hit a jumper at the buzzer as the Dolphins took a 35-32 lead into the intermission.

The Panthers scored the first five points of the second half to regain the lead. Silva made a jumper and then Matthew Price buried a three-pointer.

Following a jumper by Silva to counter a McClure three-pointer to give the Panthers the lead for the final time at 39-38, the Dolphins rattled off 14 of the next 17 points to take control of the game. Redshirt sophomore forward Isaiah Elmore (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Catholic) started the run with a jumper, DePersia recorded another conventional three-point play, Elmore made a lay-up, McClure drilled a three-pointer and a jumper and then sophomore guard Zy'Ever Wingfield (Richmond, Va./Henrico/Fork Union Military Academy) capped the streak with a tip-in with 11:33 to play.

After each team scored five points over the next four minutes, Adelphi cut its deficit in half over the next minute as Walton made a jumper and Price connected on a three-pointer.

The Dolphins countered with eight of the next 10 points to push their lead to 11 with 4:18 remaining. Sutherland scored twice in the paint, including a fast-break dunk, around two baskets by senior forward Xavier Wilson (Spring Valley, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac/The Hotchkiss School/Central Connecticut State) for a 65-54 advantage.

Adelphi got within eight on a pair of occasions over the next two minutes, but could not get any closer as the Dolphins scored seven of the next nine points to take their largest lead of the game. Wingfield made a pair of shots in the paint (both assisted by Salter) and a free throw around a jumper in the paint by Salter.

Le Moyne (2-3, 2-0 NE10) is back in action on Friday against Winston-Salem State University at 5:30 p.m. at Gannon University's 38th Gary Miller Classic.

Additional quotes from head coach Nate Champion '14:
"Another person I was extremely proud of was Zy'Ever Wingfield. He seemed a little out of it at the beginning of the game, and he just kept playing, I kept putting him in, and kept trusting him, and at the end of the game he ends up with seven rebounds, four offensive rebound putbacks that got him going, a crucial cut at the end of the game. And I thought he did a great job of continuing to play, but it was awesome to see Isaiah [Salter] come back here and do what he did today.

"And the rest of the guys, I mean - we finally won the rebounding margin. [It was] +4 [in our favor]. Turning them over 20 times helps as well."

"We just have to keep chipping away. The offense is going to come, we're starting to see it a little bit. We found some stuff with the pick and roll that helped us out a lot today. As we move forward, we just have to continue to evaluate what we're good at, evaluate how we're going to exploit [other teams'] weaknesses, and the best part about our team is that we're deep. I thought Kevin [Constant] came in and played really well in the beginning. He didn't get in during the second half but that's - I got to do a better job of getting guys in the game. But just for the way the game is being played, certain guys were rolling. So, it was great to get a win here, it's always a tough place to play, and we just have to continue to build."