HOUGHTON, NY - The Utica University men's basketball team topped Houghton University 91-74 on Saturday afternoon to collect its first Empire 8 victory of the season.
 
Dayion Thompson (Beacon, NY/Kimball Union Academy) led the team with 21 points and three rebounds with Damien Call (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) pouring in 20 points, two rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and one steal as he filled out the stat sheet. Justice Brantley (Catskill, NY/Catskill) continues to put the ball in the basket and crash the glass this season with 14 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and one steal on the afternoon.
 
Thomas Morreale (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) was efficient, scoring 12 points with six rebounds and four assists on 5-for-10 shooting. Hagen Foley (Albany, NY/Christain Brothers Academy) corralled a career-high 11 boards and also dropped six points and was giving Utica a reliable rebounder all afternoon.
 
Houghton began the contest up 6-2 yet buckets by Justice Brantley (Catskill, NY/Catskill) and Dayion Thompson (Beacon, NY/Kimball Union Academy) gave Utica a 7-6 lead. After trailing 11-9, Thompson took over scoring seven points during a strong stretch for the Pioneers and helped grow the team's lead to 20-13. 
 
The Highlanders would continue to exchange buckets with Utica trailing just 22-20 yet the Pioneers used a six-point run to grab a 28-20 advantage as Liam Teague (Guilderland, NY/Guilderland) had four points during the span. Utica's offense continued to score and a Brantley layup helped the Pioneers take a 48-36 edge into the half.
 
The teams exchanged buckets to open the second half with Houghton trimming the lead to single digits after a triple. The Highlanders cut the deficit to just seven yet this ignited a strong run by Utica as Damien Call (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) and Luke Bourgault (Troy, NY/LaSalle Institute) helped push the lead to 64-50 halfway through the quarter.
 
The Pioneers would not look back as it played phenomenal on both sides of the ball and closed out the game efficiently keeping its lead in double-digits. Houghton threatened a few times, cutting the lead to 11 yet the Pioneers closed the game out on an 8-2 edge run to hang on for a 91-74 win and collect its first Empire 8 victory of the season.
 
Utica (5-1, 1-0 Empire 8) will host Hamilton College on Thursday, December 7 at 7 p.m.