Elmira, NY - The Utica College men's basketball team won its final road game of the regular season on Monday night by taking down Elmira College 70-58.
The Soaring Eagles came out firing in the first three minutes of the game by taking an 11-0 lead right out of the gate. The offense kept firing for Elmira as they held a 16 point lead with just over six minutes remaining in the first half. However, over the last 26 minutes the Pioneers controlled the game.
UC finished the first half on a 12-2 run to close the gap to six points. Hunter Remley (Cranford, NJ/Cranford) and Kimedrick Murphy (Hudson, NY/Hudson) led the Pioneers with six points a piece in the first half while Darius Hopkins (Tampa, FL/Seffner Christian) came through with each of his five first half points during the team's 12-2 run.
The Pioneers turned its momentum from the first half into an 11-0 run to start the second half as the team held its first lead of the game at 39-36 three minutes into the second half. From that point on the team never trailed throughout the remainder of the game, surging to a 12 point win.
Thomas Morreale (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) finished as the team's leading scorer with 13 points while Hopkins added 11 along with Kobe Lufkin's (Argyle, NY/Argyle) 10. Murphy piled up the stat sheet by finishing with eight points, nine rebounds and four assists. Chris Green (White Plains, NY/Alexander Hamilton) also tallied seven points and six rebounds for UC.
Utica's defense held the Eagles to 28.5 percent shooting from the field in the second half as well as holding Elmira to 1-6 shooting from three over the final 20 minutes of play. UC used the charity stripe to its advantage in the second half as the team converted on 13 of its 16 opportunities from the line in the second half to help pull away. Overall the Pioneers shot 17-21 from the free throw line.
With the win UC moves to 7-2 (7-2 E8) on the season while Elmira falls to 1-8 (1-8 E8). The Pioneers and Soaring Eagles will meet again on April 1 for what is the final game of the regular season for UC. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. at Miga Court.
