UTICA, NY – The SUNYIT men's basketball team avoided a late rally by the visiting Gallaudet University Bison and hung on to win 68-65 in NEAC action at the Campus Center Gymnasium Saturday.  It was the second straight victory for the Wildcats, who are now 3-2 in the NEAC and 4-7 overall, while Gallaudet fell to 4-2 in the conference and 7-4 overall.

The Wildcats held a small lead for most of the first half after shooting 55 percent from the field and went into the break up eight, 37-29.  The Wildcats would be up by at least three points for the first 10 minutes of the second half and were up eight with 9:02 left on the clock, but that's when Gallaudet would storm back with eight unanswered points to tie the game at 51 all with 6:28 left and put themselves right back in the contest.

The Wildcats would go on a 13-4 run of their own over the next four minutes to take a commanding nine-point lead with 2:12 left to play, but Gallaudet would respond with a 10-3 run that was highlighted by two 3-pointers by Luther Weedon to trail by one, 66-65, with 12 seconds to play. 

After senior David Golembiowski (Barneveld, NY/Holland Patent) went 1-of-2 from the free throw line on SUNYIT's next possession, a 3-point attempt by Gallaudet's Danny Kelly with five seconds left took two bounces off the rim before falling back down to the court, where sophomore Julian Bostick (Utica, NY/Herkimer County CC) snatched the rebound and made one of two free throws after being intentionally fouled to put SUNYIT up three with one second remaining.  Gallaudet could not get one final shot off in time on its final possession and the Wildcats hung on for the hard-fought conference victory.

Golembiowski finished with a game-high 23 points and is now just six points away from passing Bob Graham (1984-87) for first all-time in career scoring at SUNYIT with 1,801 points.  Senior Kevin Cappiello (Youngsville, NY/Sullivan West) added 12 points and team highs of nine rebounds and six assists, while fellow classmate Calvin Logins (Lyons, NY/Keuka College) finished with 10 points, six rebounds and four steals.

Weedon led Gallaudet with 20 points and Kelly added 10 points, while Tony Tatum posted 14 points and 10 rebounds and Layton Seeber registered 11 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.

The Wildcats will look to make it three wins in a row when they host NEAC rival Penn State Harrisburg tomorrow at 2:00 pm.