SALEM, VA--The UMass-Dartmouth Corsairs claimed the championship of the Roanoke College men's basketball Domino's Pizza Classic with a convincing 86-64 victory over Lebanon Valley College on Wednesday evening in Salem, VA. The Corsairs improved to 7-4 with the win, while LVC dropped to 6-6 overall. Host Roanoke earned a 73-66 win over Ferrum in the consolation game to improve to 8-3 overall. The Panthers fall to 3-9 on the season.
UMass-Dartmouth 86, Lebanon Valley 64
The Corsairs cruised to the win in the championship game thanks in large part to their red-hot shooting from the floor. The team finished the night shooting 52.7 percent from the field, but more importantly 65.4 percent from behind the three-point line. The Corsairs connected on 17 of their 26 three-point attempts in the contest, that after going 10-for-13 in the first half.
Stephane Abelard was named the tournament Most Valuable Player after dropping in a game-best 32 points in the win.
Abelard went 11-for-20 from the field, 8-for-13 from three-point range, and also added eight rebounds and two assists. Nineteen of his 32 points came in the first half, a half in which he made five threes.
Lebanon Valley scored the game's opening bucket, a layup from Dan Hogan, but from there the Corsairs went on a 17-3 run to take a 12-point lead just six minutes into the contest. Ahead by nine points, 19-10, with 12:28 left in the first half the Corsairs made seven consecutive three-pointers to quickly take a 23-point lead, 40-17, that with 6:56 left in the half. The UMD lead would get out to as many as 28 points in the second half and to as few as 17 points.
UMass-Dartmouth's Devon Maiorano was also named to the All-Tournament team, as was Lebanon Valley Jimmy Curran.
Roanoke 73, Ferrum 66
Trailing 25-20 with 5:55 left in the first half, the Maroons closed the opening 20 minutes on a 15-5 run to take a six-point lead into the half, a lead they would not give up in the second. Junior Ben Lawler opened the run with a layup off of his own offensive rebound. After Keith Carter got the Maroons to within one with a layup, the Panthers were able to get the lead back out to four, 28-24.
Ben Shrader brought the Maroons to within two with a short jumper and AJ Dowell tied things at 28 with a layup. After the Panthers missed a shot on the ensuing possession, Dowell got the rebound and found a streak Aaron Tyson for a fastbreak layup, two points that gave RC the lead for good. Shrader followed with a three and Josh LaPorte banked in a layup at the buzzer to give RC the six-point edge, 35-29.
Two Ty Sigmon layups and a Jared Butler three-pointer to open the second half gave RC an 11-point lead. The Panthers slowly chipped the lead down to six, but a 9-0 Roanoke run got the lead back to 15. Roanoke had a game-high 17-point lead with just 2:01 left, but the Panthers made several shots in the final minute of the game to get the lead down to single-digits.
Tee Jackson, who followed his 22-point Tuesday effort with 11 points on Wednesday, was named to the All-Tournament team. Shrader was Roanoke's high-scorer, getting 14 points in the win. Rob Fuller paced the Panthers with 14 points and was also named to the All-Tournament team.
