Amherst, Mass. – Marcus Banks Jr. scored 26 points to lead the University of Massachusetts to a 94-80 win over the Le Moyne College men's basketball team on Thursday night at the Mullins Center.

Sophomore guard Jakai Sanders (Brooklyn, N.Y./Eagle Academy/Saint Peter's) led the Dolphins with career highs of 17 points, six rebounds and five assists. Redshirt junior guard Trent Mosquera (Boston, Mass./Belmont Hill School) recorded 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Redshirt sophomore guard Deng Garang (Syracuse, N.Y./Bishop Grimes) turned in 14 points, a career-high six steals, four rebounds and four assists. Junior guard Samuel Hincapie (Medellin, Colombia/Gateway Legacy Prep (Mo.)/Lake Land College) tallied 14 points in eight minutes off the bench in the second half.

Banks recorded 16 of his points in the first half, while also finishing the game with three assists. Leonardo Bettiol registered a double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds along with three assists. K'Jei Parker turned in 19 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals. Danny Carbuccia posted 13 points and five assists off the bench.

After the teams split the first 10 points of the game, UMass tallied 13 of the next 17 points to open up an 18-9 lead. Bettiol and Daniel Hankins-Sanford each scored four points in the span.

Le Moyne trimmed its deficit to three with the next six points. Sanders and Garang each made lay-ups around a fast-break dunk by junior guard Tennessee Rainwater (Davenport, Wash./Davenport/Utah Tech) off a steal by Garang.

Following three-point play by Bettiol to push the UMass lead to 24-18 with 9:46 to go in the half, the Dolphins scored eight of the next 10 points to knot the score at 26. Sanders and Mosquera hit three-pointers around a Hankins-Sanford jumper and then Garang made a lay-up with 7:17 left.

UMass answered with nine of the next 10 points to regain control of the game. Parker started the run with a three-pointer, Jayden Ndjigue made back-to-back shots and then Bettiol scored in the paint.

Le Moyne cut the deficit in half with 2:11 to go, but Carbuccia made a lay-up and Banks buried his fourth three-pointer of the half for a 43-34 lead with 1:18 left.

After the Dolphins had a pair of dunks in eight seconds to get within five, the Minutemen closed out the half with the last five points on a Carbuccia lay-up and a three-pointer at the buzzer from Isaiah Placide.

UMass scored the first 12 points of the second half to extend its run to 17 points spanning the halftime break. Banks had five of the points and Bettiol had three, while Hankins-Sanford and Parker each had two.

After Hincapie scored Le Moyne's first five points of the second half to get the Dolphins within 63-43 with 13:28 left, Bettiol gave the Minutemen their largest lead of the game, 67-43, with a lay-up with 12:53 to go.

Following five points from each team over the next 2:18, Le Moyne started chipping away at its deficit. Le Moyne got within 74-57 with 8:32 left after Mosquera scored eight points in just under two minutes.

After the Minutemen extended their lead to 21 for the final time with 6:21 left, the Dolphins scored seven of the next nine points, capped by a three-point play from Sanders, to get back within 15 for the first time.
 
Following seven points from each team over the next 96 seconds, during which the UMass lead bounced between 13 and 18 points, Hincapie made a lay-up and Garang drained a three-pointer to make it a 10-point game, 87-77, with 2:07 remaining.

Banks and Parker made lay-ups to kickstart a 7-3 close to the game for the Minutemen.

Le Moyne (1-3) returns home to host Niagara University on Monday at 7:00 p.m.