Host Morrisville State College men’s basketball used an early first half run to hand neighboring rival Cazenovia College a 74-56 North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) defeat Saturday afternoon in Morrisville.
The NEAC North Division leader improves to 13-4 overall, 7-1 in conference action, while Cazenovia drops to 4-13, 1-8 in NEAC play.
Morrisville State had 11 players contribute to the win, led by Rhamel Williams (Bronx, N.Y.) with a double-double performance of 14 points and 10 rebounds. Six of Williams rebounds were on the offensive glass, while defensively he tallied a team high five take aways. Kucjok Ater (Syracuse, N.Y.) posted 10 points in the win, hitting 5-of-8 from the field, while Jailaan Kinsey (Syracuse, N.Y.) and Brandon Hanks (Syracuse, N.Y.) each added nine. Hanks also pulled down seven boards and dished out three assists on the day.
Meech Drayton led the Wildcat efforts, posting a team best 18 points, 16 in the second half, as he added four assists. Matt Perry rounded out top scoring with 12 points. Robert Rohrig collected a best five rebounds on the day, as DeMarcus Bernard dished out six assists.
Scoreless for the first two minutes of the contest, Williams posted back-to-back layups that ignited the Mustangs to go on a 14-0 run over the next two minutes. Drayton broke the Cazenovia scoring drought with a layup at 15:21, but Morrisville State’s Andrew Lucio (Solvay, N.Y.) added his second from long range to put the Mustangs up 17-2 over the visitors.
Perry was able to cut the lead to 11 with 13:04 to go in the half, but Morrisville State posted three straight tallies to hold the 24-6 advantage with just over 10 minutes on the clock.
A layup from Ater with just over four to go, saw the Mustangs leading by 25, but Cazenovia closed out the half with a, 11-4 run to head into the locker room trailing 38-20 at the break.
Perry posted a quick tally for Cazenovia at the start of the second period, and Drayton followed with 12 straight points, to cut the Morrisville State lead to 12, but that’s as close as the Wildcats would get, as the Mustangs went on a 14-5 run over the next five minutes to regain the 20+ point advantage and eventual win.
Morrisville State hit 29-of-57 shots from the floor (50.9 percent), including seven from long range, holding Cazenovia to 42.3 percent on 22-of-52 shots. The Mustangs dominated the boards, collecting 48 to the Wildcats mere 20.
The Mustangs return to the court Wednesday, hosting Keuka at 7 p.m.