STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – The SUNYIT Men's Basketball Team (0-8) lost in the opening round of the 11^th Annual Tournament of Heroes Hosted by the College of Staten Island (CSI), 86-71 to the Methodist University Monarchs. The Wildcats will face the loser of Saturday's late game between the host CSI Dolphins and the MCLA Trailblazers, with the consolation game tipoff set for 1:00 pm on Sunday.

Despite the loss, SUNYIT benefited from a number of exceptional individual performances. Sophomore T'Andre Richardson (Utica, N.Y. / Utica-Proctor) had a double-double with 21 points and an eye-popping 10 blocks. Richardson missed recording SUNYIT's first triple-double in recent memory by just 2 rebounds, finishing the game with eight.

In addition to Richardson, junior Desmian Greer (Washington Heights, N.Y. / Chesire Academy) recorded a game-high 26 points on 8 of 16 shooting, including 5 for 8 from long range.

While the Wildcats shot barely two percentage points worse than the Monarchs from the field (41.7% to 43.4%), SUNYIT was done in by committing 20 turnovers. The aggressive Monarch press gave SUNYIT problems all night, and an aggressive glass game didn't help matters either as Methodist pulled down 24 offensive rebounds on the night.

Offensively for Methodist, it was big man Brandon Monk leading the way with 18 points, but the team's real strength was their offensive balance: 6 players for the Monarchs scored in double figures, compared with just three for the Wildcats (Ryan James (Saratoga, N.Y. / Saratoga) joined Greer and Richardson in that category, registering a solid 10 points and 8 rebounds from the guard position.

The Wildcats will return to action tomorrow at 1:00 pm, with live audio of the game available again from http://www.wsia.fm.