Men Overtake Second Half for Fifth Straight Win at Pratt

Nick George
Nick George

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (February 8, 2019) – The SUNY Delhi men's basketball team opened their final regular season road swing Friday night with an 81-60 ACAA win at Pratt for their fifth straight victory. The Broncos have won nine of their last ten games to jump to 14-9, and are 3-0 versus ACAA competition.

Head coach Zack Thomsen's team once again boasted a balanced attack, led by a pair of double-double performances by Payton Dean and Justin Daoud, and dominated the second half to seal the victory. The game was tied at 35-35 at halftime, but the Broncos outscored the Cannoneers, 46-25, in the second half. After Pratt scored the first five points of the latter half, Delhi scored 35 points before its hosts could score ten more of their own. The Broncos stymied the Cannoneers to nothing more than a 5-0 run the rest of the way, and prevented them from making consecutive field goals. Delhi shot 55.2 percent in the second half (19-of-34) to Pratt's 24.1 percent (7-of-29).

Dean garnered his ninth double-double on the year with a team-best 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Daoud registered 13 points with ten boards. Jordan Fragale had 14 points to go with five rebounds and seven assists, as William Knight came off the bench to score nine points, making a trio of threes for the second straight game. Norman Wilson and Mavenson Therneus each had six points.

The Broncos handily won the rebounding battle, 50-33, including a 14-6 edge in offensive rebounds that led to a 15-1 lead in second-chance points. Delhi also took a substantial 50-16 lead in points in the paint and a 31-2 advantage in bench points. The green and gold finished at 43.4 percent shooting on the night (33-for-76) and made 6-of-28 threes, compared to Pratt making 33.9 percent (19-for-56) and 8-of-20, respectively.

Coach Thomsen's team received word on Tuesday that they earned the two seed for the ACAA Tournament at Alfred State, and will play three seed Pine Manor in the league semifinals on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7:00 p.m. Before then, the Broncos have two more regular season games, and are currently making the trip to the tournament site to play Alfred State Saturday at 4:00 p.m. Delhi will then host College of St. Joseph in its home finale on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 3:00 p.m.