BUFFALO, NY - The SUNYIT men's basketball team suffered a 77-64 defeat this evening against the Mavericks of Medaille College. With the loss, the Wildcats are 0-3 on the season while the Mavericks improve to a perfect 4-0 record.
Leading the pack in points this evening was junior guard Yhashin White (Brooklyn, NY/Canarsie) who knocked in 22 points, had one assist and tallied two steals. Junior forward Derek Rowe (Mexico, NY/Mexico Academy) contributed with 15 points and came up with three steals. Lone senior guard, Alex Grimmer (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) registered six points, three assists and took down seven rebounds. Junior guard Sejad Gromilic (Bosnia/Utica-Proctor) came off the bench and made an immediate impact with 12 points, three assists and five rebounds for the Wildcats.
After the game, head coach Kevin Grimmer had this to say: "We came out strong in the first half and really executed our game plan defensively. Our defensive pressure allowed us to get out in transition for some easy baskets and our bench gave us some good momentum going into the half. Unfortunately we got into some foul trouble in the second half and that limited what sets we could run offensively. Hopefully our guys are starting to understand that a lot of our foul trouble starts with rebounding, so we have to cut down that rebounding margin (Medaille out rebounded us by 17). Overall, we did a lot of things well and we'll look to build on that when we get back from break."
Medaille had three point leaders contributing to the win with freshman center Sean Bellamo (Angola, NY/Lake Shore) leading the team with 14 points and three blocks. Junior guard Tyler Stevens (Depew, NY/Depew) registered 13 points and three assists while senior guard Angel Flores (Bronx, NY/Samuel put away 10 points and had four assists.
SUNYIT is off for the holiday break, but returns to action on Wednesday November 30th with the home opener in the Campus Center gymnasium. Game-time is set for 7:00 pm against Union College.