Albany, NY- For the first time since the 2016-17 season, the Men's Basketball team has won five straight games with a 81-70 victory over the host Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences on Wednesday evening. With the win, the Falcons improve to 12-9 on the year, while the Panthers fall to 6-11. The 12th win of the season also breaks Coach Blouin's season win total, now in his third season at the helm for the Falcons still with seven games remaining in the regular season.
The first three minutes of play started out a seesaw battle with the two teams looking to gain an early advantage. Quickly the Falcons were able to gain the advantage though, using a 16-0 run after trailing 5-4, to take a 20-5 lead at the 12:49 mark. Fisher's lead continued to grow, going up by as many as 24 after a Chris Sorapuru (Temecula, CA) layup to make it a 30-6 contest. ACPHS responded though, outscoring the Falcons 20-10 over the last nine minutes to make it a 40-26 game heading into the locker room.
The Panthers came out of the break looking to get back into the game, making two separate runs to get within five with 14:02 left on the clock. Up 49-44, the Falcons made three straight buckets to go back up by 12 at 56-44 and would not allow the Panthers to get any closer than eight points the remainder of the contest. The 3-point game was huge for the Falcons down the stretch, including three straight from Darnell White (Santa Cruz, CA). Coach Blouin also got contribution from 17 different players in the contest, including 39 points and 19 rebounds from his bench.
White led the way for his team, scoring a career-high 17 points while adding four rebounds and a pair of assists in a breakout performance. Jhalen Lumpkins (Sacramento, CA) continued to play well for the Falcons, collecting his second double-double of the season adding 15 points and 13 boards to go along with his second game with six steals. Jason Augliera (Discovery Bay, CA) also finished in double figures, notching an 11-point night. Edward Ahanmisi was the top scorer for the Panthers, dropping 20 points, five boards and four assists in the losing effort. Nate Beltran and Caleb Scrime also tallied double figure performances, scoring 19 and 10 points respectively.
The Falcons will travel to Maine this weekend looking for their 13th and 14th wins against UMaine-Fort Kent on Saturday and UMaine-Presque Isle on Sunday.