ALFRED, N.Y. (Nov. 11, 2023) – Senior
DeMarcus Spivey (Ashburn, Va.) drained a career-high 26 points to go along with six rebounds and five steals to propel the USMMA men's basketball team to a 71-57 victory over Alfred on the final day of the Special Tee's Tip-Off Classic in Upstate New York. The victory, which was also bench boss
Rob Pryor's 100th of his career as a head coach, improved the Mariners' record to 2-0, while the Saxons fell to 1-1.
Game Link
Junior
Drew Zalescik (Lambertville, N.J.) matched his career-high with 24 points, while also bringing down six rebounds. Classmate
Isaac Vencel (Bloomington, Ind.) nearly registered a double-double with 12 points and eight rebounds and sophomore
Caleb Hutchins (Buffalo, N.Y.) had a team-high nine rebounds and four assists to go along with two blocks.
Play was so even during the opening 20 minutes that neither team grabbed a lead bigger than four points. The Saxons led by two points, 30-28, at halftime.
Action was back-and-forth once again to start the second half, until the midway point when the Mariners started to pull away. KP went on a 14-2 run to take a 10-point lead, 58-48, at 6:50, and their advantage never fell under five points the remainder of the afternoon.
The Mariners played strong in transition, holding a 16-9 advantage in fast break points. Merchant Marine also won the rebounding battle, 39-34, and shot 46.3% as a team to the Saxon's 38.2%.
For Alfred, sophomore Franlys Valenzuela scored a team-best 14 points as part of a double-double performance with a game-high 11 rebounds, while classmate Tyler Curran added 12 points.
Up next, the Mariners will host SUNY New Paltz this coming Tuesday, Nov. 14. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Liebertz Gymnasium. Live stats and a live video feed of the game will be posted on
the USMMA Men's Basketball Schedule Page.
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