Rochester, N.Y. - A notable shooting display across the board lifted the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team to an 87-63 win over Medgar Evers College in the consolation matchup of the Mike Daley Memorial Tournament at Nazareth, Saturday afternoon.
The Knights add their first win of the year, moving to 1-1 overall. The team returns to action on Tuesday, November 11th, hosting SUNY Canton at Alumni Gymnasium with tipoff set for 5:30 p.m.
Clarkson got out on the front foot early, leading by 11 at the 15:00 minute mark following a nice driving dump off from Nate Abernethy to Ben Phillips for an uncontested lay-in on the left side. Ahmad Toure would break a four minute scoring drought for the Cougars with an offensive rebound put-back to cut the lead back to single-digits. However, on the next Clarkson possessions, two deep back-to-back three-pointers from Steve DeRegis extended the advantage to 15, forcing Medgar Evers to take their second timeout of the half at 14:04.
That lead would grow to 16 with 10:45 left when Abernethy connected on a trey from the top of the key off a feed from Aydin Kocak. The Cougars were forced to take another timeout as the Clarkson lead grew to 20 with 9:15 remaining. Two straight layups courtesy of Braeden Burns off feeds from DeRegis and Matt Toscano put the Knights firmly in the driving seat. A 10-0 run for the Knights over the next two minutes saw the lead balloon to 43-13 before Trevonne Tcha was able to break the four minute scoring drought for the Cougars with just under six minutes left till the half. Joash Beaton would rattle off six-straight points with a little over two minutes remaining, cutting the lead back to 50-23 but a Toscano jumper with 49 seconds on the clock would be the last scoring action of the half with Clarkson taking a 29 point advantage into the break.
Medgar Evers began to claw away at the lead early in the second half as an Ahmed Toure jumper at 16:36 cut the Knight lead to 21. Burns responded with two driving layups on the ensuing Clarkson possessions, re-establishing a 62-37 advantage.
Clarkson would continue to keep the Cougars offense at bay using tough man-to-man defense to force turnovers and bad shots. After trading buckets up to the 10 minute mark, an Omari Hinds corner three drew the Cougars back to 70-49 with more than eight and a half to go in the contest. Responding with a 6-0 run down to the 6:39 mark, Phillips, Toscano and Casey Montesano all scored lay-ups around the rim as the lead would grow back to 76-49.
Medgar Evers would close out the half on a 9-2 scoring run again cutting the lead down to 87-63 before Clarkson dribbled out the remainder of the clock for the final. The Knights never trailed through the contest, with the lead never dropping below 21 points through the second half.
Clarkson would shoot a staggering 64% from the field, going 35-55 on attempts, which included a 16-18 mark in the first half for attempts inside the arc. The Knights also established a heavy presence in the paint, leading the game in rebounds (35-25) and points in the paint (52-20) while the bench for Clarkson combined for 35 of the team's points. Medgar Evers led in steals (10-6) and points off turnovers (19-18).
Abernethy, who was selected to the All-Tournament Team, led Clarkson with a tied for game-best 19 points, going 8-10 from the field as part of an effort that featured 13 different scorers from the Knights. Burns followed with 18 on 8-8 shooting while adding three rebounds and three assists. Montesano led the rebounding effort with six boards while Tyson Maxam dished out a game-best four assists. Beaton led the Cougars with 19 points while Michael Perez added 12 as the only two in double figures.
