Albany, NY – The Sage Colleges' men's basketball team hosted the Fighting Blue Jays of NYU-Poly on Thursday evening in the Kahl Gym in a Skyline Conference match-up. The host Gators rolled to the team's fourth straight win as they beat NYU-Poly, 94-76. With the victory Sage improves to 8-3 overall and 5-1 in the conference. NYU-Poly drops to 2-9 overall and 0-5 in the league.
Junior center Kai Deans (Miami, FL/Monsignor Pace) finished with a double-double as he had 15 points with 10 rebounds and four blocked shots, while senior Mason Horne (Albany, NY/LaSalle Institute) as added a team-best 17 points with six assists. For the action, Sage benefit from a well rounded scoring output as four players finished in double digits in the action as sophomore Melvin Ford (Voorhees, NJ/Eastern Regional) added 16 points and senior Ryan LaBelle (East Berne, NY/Berne-Knox-Westerlo) added 12 points.
Graduate performer Jeff Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia Glenville) connected for nine points with six assists and seven steals as Sage shot 52.2% from the floor (35-67) in the contest.
The Gators have now scored 90 or more points this season seven times and own a combined 91.1 ppg average, which is first among the Skyline Conference. At the half, Sage led 53-33 and were paced by Horne and Ford as the pair had 11 and 10 points, respectively.
For the game, NYU-Poly got a game-best 21 points from sophomore guard Brendan Gallagher (Long Island, NY/St. Anthony's), while junior guard Fabian Thomas (Stroudsburg, PA/Stroudsburg) connected for 18 points. Rookie forward Issac Neaves (Sant Antonio, TX/Marshall) connected for 13 points with eight rebounds for the Fighting Blue Jays. Junior forward Jethro Auguste (Brooklyn, NY/Everett) just missed a double-double as he had 12 rebounds with nine points.
Sage will return to action on January 11 hosting Farmingdale State College in the Kahl Gym in a 3 p.m. Skyline Conference contest, while NYU-Poly is in action on January 11 travelling to St. Joseph's College (LI) for a 2 p.m. Skyline Conference game.