SALEM, VA--The Lebanon Valley Flying Dutchmen and the UMass-Dartmouth Corsairs will play for the championship of the Roanoke College Domino's Pizza men's basketball tournament on Wednesday afternoon, that after both teams picked up wins in the opening round. The Dutchmen defeated Ferrum College 75-62 in the first game, while the Corsairs defeated host Roanoke 87-78.
UMass-Dartmouth 87, Roanoke 78
The Corsairs blocked Roanoke's first two shots from the field, setting the tempo that saw the visitors jump out to a 14-point halftime lead. The Maroons never led in the contest and earned their only tie of the contest at 12-12 on a Ben Shrader layup with 10:46 left in the first half. Just 13 seconds later, however, the Corsairs took the lead for good, that on a Paul Pawlowski bucket in the paint.
Leading by three points with 8:28 to go in the first half, the Corsairs used a 10-0 run to push their lead out to 13 points. Devon Maiorano was the spark to that run, hitting two of his game-best five three-pointers. The lead would get out to as many as 15 points in the first half.
The Maroons shot just 32 percent from the field in the first half, while the RC defense allowed UMass-Dartmouth to make 53 percent of its shots.
Three times in the second half the Maroons were able to trim the lead to just seven points, but twice the Corsairs answered with a three-pointer, one from Maiorano and one from Pawlowski.
Pawlowski finished the game with 20 points, while Maiorano had 19, 15 coming on those three-pointers. Both Dan Holbrook and Stephane Abelard finished with double-doubles. Holbrook scored 16 and added 15 rebounds, while Abelard had 18 points and 11 rebounds. Tee Jackson was Roanoke's high-scorer, getting 22 points, one shy of a career-high.
The championship game will be played at 3:00pm on Wednesday in Roanoke's Bast Center, while the consolation game between the Maroons and Panthers will start at 5:00pm.
