UTICA, NY - The Utica College men's basketball team cruised past Hartwick College 74-53 on Tuesday evening for the team's second Empire 8 win of the season.
The Hartwick Hawks came out and scored the first bucket of the game for a 2-0 lead for which they held for just over one minute. That would be the lone minute of the contest the Hawks would have a lead as it was all gas on offense from the point on for the Pioneers.
Starting with a
Chris Green (White Plains, NY/Alexander Hamilton) three-point shot that gave UC the lead at 18:44, Utica totaled a 16-0 run over the next eight minutes until Hartwick hit its second shot of the game with under 11 minutes left in the first. Thanks to 54 percent shooting from the field and 42.1 percent from three-point range, the Pioneers took a comfortable 39-17 lead into the locker room.
Although the offense didn't slow down, the Utica defense allowed 36 points in the second half. Hartwick turned an abysmal first half 20 percent field goal percentage and 6.7 three-point shooting (1-15) into 38 percent from the floor and 30 percent shooting from three over the final 20 minutes. UC did put up 35 second half points with the majority coming in the form of bench points from
DJ Harter (Holland Patent, NY/Holland Patent),
Justice Brantley (Catskill, NY/Catskill),
Avery Coston (Kerhonkson, NY/Rondout Valley) and
Damien Call (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy).
Kobe Lufkin (Argyle, NY/Argyle) led the team with 16 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 from downtown.
Darius Hopkins (Tampa, FL/Seffner Christian) and
Thomas Morreale (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) each totaled 10 points in the win while Morreale also came down with six rebounds.
Kimedrick Murphy (Hudson, NY/Hudson) kept up his good play as of late with a team high nine rebounds and two blocks down low. In all, 12 different Pioneers scored in the game.
UC (8-2, 2-0 Empire 8) returns to the court on Friday in what will be a rematch of the spring 2021 Empire 8 championship game at St. John Fisher. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
