UTICA, NY – The SUNYIT men's basketball team rallied from 24 points down but would fall short in the closing seconds to NEAC rival Wells College and suffer an 86-84 loss in conference action Saturday.  The Wildcats dropped to 10-5 in conference play and 11-10 overall, while the Express improved to 10-3 in the NEAC and 11-9 overall.

Trailing by 24 points with 18:25 left to play, the Wildcats would go on to outscore Wells 48-23 over the next 18 minutes – thanks in large part to 19 points apiece from senior David Golembiowski (Barneveld, NY/Holland Patent) and sophomore Justin Brignola (Clifton Park, NY/The Sage Colleges) – to give SUNYIT an 84-83 lead with 35 ticks left on the clock and force Wells to use a timeout.

Wells would draw up a play for junior forward Terry Harrison, who drove to the hole and put in a tough layup that gave the lead back to the Express, putting them up 85-84 with 22 seconds remaining and this time forcing a SUNYIT timeout. The Wildcats would be unable to convert on the next play, however, as Wells would cause a tie-up in the paint with four seconds remaining and, with the arrow pointing in the Wells direction, give the Express possession and essentially the victory.

Brignola finished with a season-high 30 points and hit five 3-pointers for SUNYIT, while Golembiowski scored 29 points and added game highs of 15 rebounds and five blocks.  Senior Calvin Logins (Lyons, NY/Keuka College) finished with 22 points and a game-high five steals.

Harrison finished with 29 points and 13 rebounds for Wells, while Mabior Mayen registered 22 points and 13 rebounds and Dave Foltz chipped in 17 points.

The Wildcats will be back in action on Saturday, February 12 when they host NEAC rival SUNY Cobleskill at the Campus Center Gymnasium.  Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 pm.