ALBANY, NY - Backed by another strong outing by Justice Brantley (Catskill, NY/Catskill), the Utica University men's basketball team topped the Russell Sage College Gators 65-49 on the road on Saturday afternoon. 
 
Following his career-high 34 point performance on Friday, Brantley turned in a 23 point, 10 rebound double-double on 8-for-14 shooting from the floor and 4-for-5 from deep. Damien Call (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) provided 14 points (6-13 FG) and six boards while Luke Bourgault (Troy, NY/LaSalle Institute) and Liam Teague (Guilderland, NY/Guilderland) had seven points each. 
 
The Pioneers started off as hot as a team could get, taking a strong 12-0 lead over the first five minutes of play with buckets by Griffin Barasa (Clearwater, FL/Calvary Christian), Hagen Foley (Albany, NY/Christian Brothers Academy) and Call. However, over a six minute span the Gators slowly chipped away with a 15-3 run to knot things up at 15 all by the 9:25 mark in the first. 
 
Between the eight- and seven-minute marks of the first, Call willed the team back into the lead with four points over the minute span before Sage ultimately fought its way into its first lead of the day at 201-9 with six minutes remaining. 
 
The remaining time in the first continued to be a dog fight with the Pioneers holding the slight 30-27 edge going into halftime. 
 
From that point onwards, it would be all Utica. 
 
The Pioneers' defense limited Sage to 32 percent shooting from the field throughout the second half while draining nearly 54 percent of their own shots from the floor. Brantley accounted for 17 of the team's 35 second half points and did so on a perfect 2-of-2 shooting from three and 6-for-8 shooting from the field. 
 
Utica never trailed in the second half and although the Gators got within one point with 14 minutes to play, the team pulled out by double digits just four minutes later and didn't look back en route to its 10th E8 win of the year. 
 
Utica (17-3, 10-1 Empire 8) will travel to Rochester, NY on Tuesday for a bout with St. John Fisher University with postseason implications on the line. Tip-off on Feb. 6 is set for 7:30 p.m.