Albany, NY — The College of Saint Rose jumped out to a 40-14 lead in the opening 12 minutes and then held off Bentley to upend the Falcons 90-83 in Northeast-10 Conference action tonight at the Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium.
Both teams shot better than 50.0 percent from the floor although the Golden Knights (18-4/10-3 NE10) turned 17 Bentley miscues into 25 points to win their sixth straight.
“We expected Bentley to battle us for 40 minutes tonight and that’s exactly what they did. Our first 10 to 12 minutes were as good as I’ve seen us play all year and we knew that would be difficult to maintain. I am proud of how our guys stayed the course and held off Bentley,” said head coach Brian Beaury.
Saint Rose put five players in double-figures for the third time in the last four games. Junior guard Mical-Ryan Boyd (Hempstead, NY/Long Island Lutheran) and senior forward Tyler Sayre (Garnerville, NY/Albertus Magnus) led the way with 20 and 19 points respectively.
Junior forward Jack Jones (Sydney, Australia/Newington College) tossed in 15 while senior guard Damon Coleman (Roosevelt, NY/Holy Trinity) and junior forward Julian Lipinski (Melbourne, Australia/Whitefriars) wound up with 12 and 10 respectively. Coleman also handed out five assists and came up with four steals. Additionally, senior guard Chris Dorgler (Floral Park, NY/Archbishop Molloy) finished with nine point and a team-high eight rebounds.
The Golden Knights appeared to have things well in hand after Coleman knocked down a 3-pointer to make it a 26 point ballgame with 7:47 left until the break. However, Bentley (9-9/6-7 NE10) outscored Saint Rose 18-3 the rest of the way to get to within 11, 43-32, at halftime.
The Falcons then whittled their deficit to six on three occasions with less than eight minutes remaining. It got to within four after sophomore forward Zach Gilpin (Hampden, Maine/Hampden Academy) drained a trey that made it a 77-73 ballgame with 3:43 to play. It was then still a four point affair after Gilpin converted a pair from the foul line with 1:25 left.
However, Bentley was forced to foul at that juncture and Saint Rose mitigated the strategy by going 9-for-12 from the stripe the rest of the way.
The Falcons also had a quintet in double-figures. Sophomore guard Ryan Richmond (Toronto, Ontario/David & Mary Thomson Collegiate) scored 20 and Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, CT/Trinity Catholic) had 17 to lead their charge.
Looking ahead, both teams hit the road Saturday for 3:30 pm conference dates. Saint Rose travels to Easton, MA to meet Stonehill, while Bentley heads to New Haven to face Southern Connecticut State.
-David Alexander.Saint Rose Athletics
