()
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. ‘ Dennis Young scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Marist College to a 72-65 win over ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ Friday night in the opening round of the Pepsi-Marist Classic.
ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ (0-1) will meet Eastern Michigan in Saturday night’s consolation game at 5 p.m. Vermont defeated Eastern Michigan 71-64 in the first game of the doubleheader.
Senior guard , who scored a career-high 25 points, and junior guard with 14 points and eight rebounds led ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ.
Also in double figures for Marist were Nick Eppehimer and Brandon Ellerbee with 15 points apiece. Eppehimer finished with a double-double adding 10 rebounds.
ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ had a three-point lead, 12-9, with 10:04 remaining in the first half, before the Red Foxes came back to take a 15-14 lead on Ellerbee’s jumper. Marist went ahead by as many as eight points before settling for a 28-25 halftime lead.
In the second half, Marist extended its advantage to seven points on two occasions in the first four minutes, but ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ hung tough battling back to take a 44-43 lead with 9:21 remaining.
The Raiders led 54-53 with 5:40 remaining before Marist scored six straight points on Eppehimer’s three-point play and Ellerbee’s 3-point shot. The Red Foxes never trailed after that run. The closest ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ would come was 63-61 with 1:29 remaining.
had seven points and seven rebounds for the Raiders while added eight points and seven boards.
GAME NOTES: ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ played without the services of , who suffered a sprained ankle in Thursday’s practice. He is listed as day-to-day.