BOX SCORE
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Northeast-10 Player of the Year Laurence
Ekperigin totaled 17 points and 12 rebounds to lead sixth-seeded Le
Moyne College to the Northeast-10 Men's Basketball Championship
title game with a 61-55 win over No. 7 seed Southern New Hampshire
University at Grant Court Thursday night. The Dolphins, who
will travel to No. 5 seed Assumption for Saturday's title tilt,
improve to 20-10 overall while winning 11 in a row, while the
Penmen, who had won six straight and 10 of 12 entering the game,
see their season come to a close at 18-12.
Ekperigin finished 6-9 from the
floor and also blocked five shots. James Cormier drained
three three-pointers and finished with 13 points, while Damani
Corbin totaled 10 points and seven assists for the Dolphins.
Tory Stapleton
(Rahway, NJ) led Southern New Hampshire with 14 points and seven
rebounds. Stephen Wood
(South Jamaica Queens, NY) recorded 11 points, 15 rebounds and
three assists, while Josh Morgan-Green
(Upper Marlboro, MD) scored 10 points. Lucas Croteau
(Rochester, NH) added nine.
Le Moyne led virtually the whole
game and took its largest lead, 48-35 with 6:09 to play following a
basket by Ed Archibold Brown. The Penmen used a 8-2 spurt to
get the lead down to seven with 3:05 to play on a jumper by
Wood. Southern New Hampshire kept chipping away at the lead,
taking advantage of missed Dolphin free throws, and got it down to
four, 54-50, with 52 seconds left on a layup by Stapleton.
SNHU would foul Cormier, and he
would sink a pair with 41 seconds to play. Croteau scored on
the next Penmen possession, but Cormier would make two more at the
charity stripe with 30 seconds left to make it 58-52. A layup
attempt by Matthews would be blocked by Ekperigin with 24 seconds
left to seal the victory.
The Penmen trailed 24-17 at
halftime, but got the lead down to four at the 13:45 mark on a
basket by Croteau that made it 28-24. Le Moyne used an 8-3
spurt to build its lead to 10, 41-31, at the 9:09 mark on a three
by Cormier.
Southern New Hampshire took its
lone lead of the game 1:53 in on a three-pointer by Wood that made
it 3-2. The game got off to a slow start but the hosts built
a 13-5 lead nine minutes in following a basket by Chris
Johnson. The Penmen scored the next five points and a
conventional three-point play by Morgan-Green at the 9:22 mark made
it 13-10. Le Moyne took its largest lead of the opening 20
minutes at the 3:47 mark when Corbin made 1-of-2 at the line to
make it a 19-10 lead. SNHU drew within four with just over a
minute to play on a Stapleton layup, but Le Moyne took a 24-17 lead
into the locker room.
Le Moyne limited SNHU to just 21.9%
shooting in the first half and 31.9% for the game, with nine
blocked shots playing a big factor. The Dolphins shot just
32% in the first half, but were 12-22 (54.5%) from the field over
the final 20 minutes. Le Moyne generated 20 more trips to the
free throw line, but were just 15-30 at the stripe while the Penmen
were 5-10. Southern New Hampshire grabbed one more rebound
than Le Moyne (46-45).
SNHU was making its first
appearance in the NE-10 semifinals since 2005.
