DELHI, N.Y. (January 9, 2019) – After winning three straight on the road, the SUNY Delhi men's basketball team were outworked by Morrisville State in their return to their home court on Thursday with a 78-67 defeat. The visiting Mustangs displayed strong athleticism in the paint that led them to victory as the Broncos dropped to 10-7 on the season.
Morrisville forward Kevin Dennis put up a game-high 21 points and ten rebounds to lead the Mustangs to a 41-37 edge on the boards and a 34-24 lead in points in the paint. Delhi's Mavenson Therneus led the team with 13 points, while Payton Dean just missed a double-double with nine points and a team-best nine boards. Darius Hines made ten points off the bench, while Erhunosere Uwuigbe earned seven points off the pine. The Broncos were held to 39.0 percent shooting (23-for-59) to the Mustangs' 40.6 (26-for-64), and made just 4-of-16 threes to Morrisville's 6-of-26. Delhi was also guilty of 14 turnovers, leading to a 15-9 lead for MSC in points off turnovers.
The game started off at a moderate back-and-forth pace, but Morrisville built a strong case to finish the first half. Ahead, 27-23, the Mustangs closed out the half with an 11-7 run in the last eight minutes to take a 38-31 lead at intermission. They opened the second half widening their lead to ten points less than five minutes in. Though Delhi responded to cut things to five points at 52-47, Morrisville retaliated by building their lead to as many as 14 points by the time the final buzzer sounded.
Dean moved closer to the 1,000 point milestone, now totaling 975 points. Fragale dropped six points and three assists to bump his numbers up to 937, while William Knight's two points puts him at 960, as the senior also tallied four rebounds. Justin Daoud, who reached 1,000 career points on Monday at Northern Vermont Johnson, now has 1,023 career points after netting five points and six rebounds.
Head coach Zack Thomsen's team continues their home stand this Saturday when they host Maine Fort Kent at 2:00 p.m., followed by a home meeting with Pine Manor on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.
