Albany, NY—The Sage Colleges' men's basketball team hosted the Soaring Eagles of Elmira College on Saturday afternoon in an Empire 8 game. Sage rolled to 98-72 win as five different Gators finished in double digits. With the win, Sage is now 5-5 overall and 1-1 in the Empire 8. Elmira drops to 2-10 overall and 0-3 in the league. Sage junior center Kevin Lenehan (Delanson, NY/Duanesburg) added a personal-best 19 points to lead the Gators to their first conference win.
The Gators led 45-37 at the half as got 16 first-half points from Lenehan. He hit 7-of-12 field goal attempts in the first stanza of action and helped the Gators with six boards and a pair of blocks in the first half. Sophomore Isaiah Scurry (Albany, NY/Albany) had nine points in the first half, while senior forward Barceem Dukes (Gloversville, NY/Gloversville) had a seven points and boards in the first half as the Gators held a 22-18 edge on the boards.
Elmira got six points in the first half from three players as junior forward Hendry Cuffee (Bel Aire, MD/CM Wright), junior guard Justin Porrett (Dumont, NJ/Dumont) and sophomore forward Kyle McCreery (Wurtsboro, NY/Monticello) all had six points for the Soaring Eagles in the first half. EC combined to shoot 45.5% from the floor in the first half (15-33), while making four three-pointers.
Lenehan just missed a double-double as he had 19 points with nine rebounds with two blocks and two steals. Off the bench, rookie forward Fetherner Aime (Palm Coast, FL/Flagler Palm Coast) added his career-best effort tallying 16 points after making 6-of-8 shots from the floor with 14 points in the second stanza of action.
Dukes had a double-double on 11 points with 10 boards, while sophomore forward Anthony Mitchell (Bronx, NY/Salesian) also netted 11 points. Senior guard Wayne Weir (Bronx, NY/Samuel Gompers) tallied 13 points for Sage as they finished with a commanding 55-38 edge on the boards.
For Elmira, Cuffee and sophomore guard Jesse Edelson (Closter, NJ/Northern Valley Demarest) were co-high scorers with 10 points apiece. A dozen different players scored for Elmira, while Cuffee was high rebounder with seven caroms.
Sage will return to action on January 8 hosting Worcester State University in a 4 p.m. non-conference game at Kahl Gym. Elmira College is back in action at Empire 8 foe, Houghton College for a 6 p.m. Empire 8 game on January 9.