West Point, N.Y. – Blake Barker tallied 20 points off the bench to lead Army West Point to a 68-51 victory over the Le Moyne College men's basketball team on Tuesday night at Christl Arena.

"I think the bottom line tonight is at this level, you can't show up to a game thinking you're win," said head coach Nate Champion. "Your preparation and your mentality that stems from practice that stems from the Fredonia game. It stems from just everything that we've been doing as a team. It really plays into games like this. When you don't have the best week of practice and you're not prepared and preparing the right way. They will come back to bite you and I thought tonight Army just wanted it more than us and that's something that really can't happen, especially with the kids that we have. We really pride ourselves on playing extremely hard and being a tougher team. And obviously West Point played really well tonight. They hit a lot of shots too. Kudos to them but also it's something for us we have to be able to make every effort to be more disciplined on the defensive end when we don't make shots."

Graduate student forward Luke Sutherland (Syracuse, N.Y./West Genesee/Siena/Bryant) led the Dolphins offensively with 17 points, 15 of which came in the second half. Junior forward Ocypher Owens (Orlando, Fla./Orlando Christian Prep/Indian River State) recorded eight of his 12 points in the second half, while leading the Dolphins with eight rebounds.

Barker tallied 18 of his game-high point total in the second half on 6-of-7 shooting from the field, including 4-of-5 from three-point range. Josh Scovens turned in 12 of his 16 points after halftime, while adding seven rebounds, three blocks and three assists. Ryan Curry posted 11 points and six rebounds. Abe Johnson led all players in the game with 10 rebounds.

The Black Knights scored the first nine points of the game and took their first double-digit lead at 12-2 with 12:55 remaining in the first half. TJ Small scored the first five points and then Scovens and Curry scored in the paint. After Le Moyne got on the scoreboard, Dylan Blair answered with a three-pointer.

Following a pair of baskets in the paint by the Dolphins to get within six with 12:05 left, the Black Knights scored seven straight points for their largest lead of the first half at 19-6 with 7:53 to go. Barker made a jumper, Curry drained a three-pointer and then Scovens scored in the paint.

Le Moyne answered with a 7-0 spurt and 11 of the next 14 points to trim its deficit back to five. Graduate student guard Kaiyem Cleary (Manchester, England/Redemption Christian Academy (NY)/Florida Southern/Florida Southwestern/Ball State) started the run with a jumper and two free throws and then freshman guard AJ Dancler (Indianapolis, N.Y./Southport) drilled a three-pointer from the right wing and made a lay-up around a Blair three-pointer before Owens scored in the paint to make it 24-19 with 2:04 left.

Johnson recorded a conventional three-point play with 39 seconds left to close out the scoring in the first half as Army took a 27-19 lead into the intermission.

Following a free throw by the Dolphins to start the scoring in the second half, Curry converted back-to-back shots in the paint to push the margin back into double digits.

Le Moyne then staged its first run of the half to cut into its deficit. Graduate student guard Mike DePersia (Cherry Hill, N.J./Haddonfield Memorial/IUPUI) made a lay-up, Sutherland drained a three-pointer in transition and made a transition lay-up to make it 31-27 and force an Army timeout with 14:48 left.

Out of the timeout, the Black Knights rattled off 10 straight points. Barker started the run with a lay-up in transition, Charlie Peterson had a dunk and then Barker connected on back-to-back three-pointers to force a Le Moyne timeout with 12:09 to play and Army leading 41-27.

Following a pair of three-pointers from each team over the next 2:43, Le Moyne rattled off eight straight points with four each from Sutherland and Owens to get back within six with 7:33 remaining.

After the Dolphins committed a traveling violation out of the media timeout, the Black Knights went on an 8-1 run put the game away. Barker made a three-pointer and a lay-up around a Scovens basket in the paint and then Scovens made a foul shot.

After Army's lead bounced between 11 and 16 points over the next three minutes, the Black Knights scored the final score points to deliver the final score.

Le Moyne (3-6) returns to action on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Binghamton University.