Syracuse, N.Y. – Graduate student guard Kaiyem Cleary (Manchester, England/Redemption Christian Academy (NY)/Florida Southern/Florida Southwestern/Ball State) went off for a program-record 43 points to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to an 87-74 victory over LIU on Saturday afternoon in Northeast Conference action at Ted Grant Court.

Richard Kenyon set the previous record of 41 points against Saint Joseph's during the 1954-55 season and then Philip Harlow tied the mark against Clarkson during the 1970-71 campaign. Cleary's 43 points are the most by any player in Division I this season in regulation and the third-most overall (Denver's Tommy Bruner had 49 (35 in regulation) and South Dakota's Kaleb Stewart had 44 (23 in regulation) against each other on Thursday night in double overtime). His total is the highest by an NEC player since Syracuse-native Charles Pride had 44 for Bryant on February 3, 2022 against Saint Francis and is tied for the 12th-most on the NEC single-game scoring list. Cleary connected on 14-of-25 shot attempts, including a career-best 6-of-10 from three-point range, while going a career-best 9-for-9 from the foul line. He netted 18 of his points in the first half and followed with 25 (a total that in itself would be his career high for a game) in the second half. Cleary's 14 made field goals are tied for the sixth-most in a game in the program's history and are the most since C.J. Asuncion-Byrd had 15 on March 6, 2019 in the NE10 semifinals against Merrimack. He is the second Dolphin this year to go 9-of-9 from the foul line in a game after graduate student forward Luke Sutherland (Syracuse, N.Y./West Genesee/Siena/Bryant) did so in the program's first win over a DI team as a DI program at CSUN on November 21. Cleary also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and blocked a pair of shots.

Sutherland finished the contest with 16 points for his third straight game in double digits, while adding five rebounds and two assists. Senior guard Darrick Jones Jr. (Richmond, Va./Oak Hill Academy/Towson) tallied 12 points, his highest mark of the season against a DI program. Graduate student guard Isaiah Salter (Charlotte, N.C./Central Cabarrus/American International/Adelphi) recorded seven points and seven assists. With his first three-pointer of the game, which came with 5:19 left in the first half, Salter eclipsed 1000 points for his career. He had 289 as a freshman at AIC in 2018-19, 250 as a fourth-year sophomore at Adelphi in 2021-22 and he has 467 over two seasons as a Dolphin.

Tai Strickland led the Sharks in the loss with 34 points, including 19 in the first half, while adding seven rebounds and three assists. Strickland's 34 points are the most by an opponent in regulation at Ted Grant Court since Bentley's Keegan Hyland (who later became a Le Moyne assistant in 2017-18) had 34 on January 23, 2016 in 84-58 Bentley victory. Eric Acker, the highest scoring freshman in the NEC at 13.2 per game, recorded 16 points, four assists and three rebounds. Tana Kopa was the third Shark in double digits with 13 points.

After the Dolphins scored four of the first six points of the game, the Sharks scored nine straight points to open their largest lead of the game. Strickland hit a jumper and a three-pointer, Kopa made a jumper and then Strickland converted another jump shot to force a Le Moyne timeout with 16:43 left.

Le Moyne countered with eight straight points to take the lead back. Cleary, Jones Jr. and Sutherland each made a jumper and then Cleary converted two foul shots with 13:55 remaining.

The teams then exchanged the lead four times over the next 90 seconds before Cleary drained a three-pointer and finished off an alley-oop from Salter to force an LIU timeout with the Dolphins leading 23-18 with 10:23 left.

Le Moyne's lead bounced between two and seven points over the next six minutes before the Sharks used a 10-4 run to take the lead. Strickland and Kopa made three-pointers, Kopa followed with a jumper and then Acker put his team in front with a jumper with 1:51 left in the half for a 37-36 lead.

The Dolphins scored the last five points of the half to take a 41-37 lead into the intermission. Cleary made two free throws and then after Cleary blocked a fast-break dunk attempt by Acker, Salter buried a three-pointer from the right corner.

After Cleary made a jumper to give the Dolphins a 45-39 lead with 17:52 left in the second half, the Sharks scored seven straight points to take their final lead of the game. Strickland made back-to-back jumpers and then Acker drilled a three-pointer with 15:42 to play.

The LIU lead was short-lived as Cleary answered 21 seconds later with a jumper to ignite a 20-4 run. Jones Jr. followed with a three-pointer and then Cleary drilled a pair of three-pointers around a free throw by Acker. After a free throw by RJ Greene, Sutherland hit a jumper and Cleary made two free throws for a 12-point lead. Following two more free throws from Greene, Sutherland made another jumper and Cleary drained a three-pointer to force an LIU timeout with 9:11 left and the Dolphins leading 65-50.

Strickland hit a jumper with 8:52 left to snap his team's drought of 6:50 without a field goal as the team's traded points over the next four minutes, during which time Le Moyne's lead bounced between 13 and 16 points.

After Nikola Djapa made a lay-up with 4:32 left to get the Sharks within 11, Cleary buried a three-pointer and Sutherland made a jumper to push the lead back to a game-high 16 points with 3:44 to go.

Cleary drove into the paint and made a hanging jumper with 39 seconds left to break the program's single-game scoring record. He finished the three-point play with a free throw to complete his scoring in the game and give the Dolphins an 87-72 lead.