By LOGAN RIPLEY
Staff Writer
The Saint Rose Golden Knights men’s basketball team outlasted the Bloomfield Bears Saturday night 92 to 79 on behalf of senior Tyler Sayre’s game high 31 points and nine rebounds. The Golden Knights made a run near the end of the second period using their stout defense and high percentage from the field to overwhelm the Bears and leave them cowering as time expired.
The first half starting with instant offense looked like a different team than last year for the home side Saint Rose. With a freshman at the point, Shane Herrity, they didn’t blink an eye as their offense was run to a tee, using the in out game to set the tempo early, but was countered with great jump shooting by the visitors as they totaled 50% from the field at the end of the first half.
Leading the Bears in the first was forward Ignacio Diez as he propelled his team to an early lead near the 10:49 mark, having scored 10 of his 18 points halfway through the first. Sayre was not far behind as he kept Saint Rose charging having already tallied 12 points through the first 10 minutes of the game.
“He’s our guy,” said head coach Brian Beaury. “He’s our go to guy.”
Sayre scoring outburst kept the Golden Knights in prime position to take the lead back before the break.
Saint Rose made a final cut at the lead to end the first stanza as they went on a 19-8 run through the final 6:29 of the half.
“We really emphasized stops,” said sophomore forward Sam Eckstrom. “We were trading buckets a lot down the stretch so once we started getting stops and scores we started to pull away.”
Going into half Saint Rose held a small lead, 43 to 38, but seemed to really click on all cylinders making the second half to be must watch basketball.
Bloomfield didn’t miss a beat coming out of the locker room as they switched the helm at go to guy to forward Nick Davidson who scored only four points in the first but followed it with 21 in the second. Davidson came out hot hitting three straight 3-pointers pulling his team within one point at the 16:07 mark. Another standout in the second who was almost a non-factor in the first was sophomore forward Sam Eckstrom as he scored eight of his 14 in the second giving Saint Rose their low post offense that they had been missing while playing sure handed defense within the middle of their 2-3 zone.
“He kind of told us to stay the course,” said Sayre about Beaury, “We were giving up some easy shots and just had to get into their shooters and take away some of those easy looks and I think we did that in the second half.”
Eckstrom and Sayre weren’t alone in the second as the Golden Knights outscored the Bears 26 to two in bench points. Junior guard Damon Coleman and sophomore guard Mical-Ryan Boyd tallied seven points. Sophomore forwards Julian Lipinski and Jack Jones pitched in four apiece in the final half.
“This is a Saint Rose basketball team that has a lot of talent,” said Beaury. “We’re going to have different guys play every night, different kinds of minutes, and I think that’s one of our strengths.”
The Golden Knights would capitalize on their great bench presence and strong performance from Sayre in his first game back to pull away late and complete the victory.
“He looks as solid as ever,” said Beaury about Sayre. “I thought he played a terrific first game back considering he hasn’t played a college basketball game in about 20 months.”
Saint Rose will look to continue to use their new found 11 man rotation in a match up at home verse East Stroudsburg University Sunday, Nov. 15 at 5:00 p.m.
