SYRACUSE-The College of Saint Rose relentlessly clawed back from a 10-point halftime deficit only to fall just short, 67-63, to host and 24
th ranked Le Moyne in tonight's NCAA Championship Tournament East Regional Semifinal. The Dolphins will now face Bloomfield in Tuesday's 7:00 pm Regional Final (Sweet 16) on their own court. The Deacons advanced with today's 109-91 victory against Merrimack.
"It was a tough game. I'm proud of the way our five seniors played. They won nine games as freshmen, but grew and matured into a group that led us to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments and a pair of 20-plus win seasons," said assistant coach
Mike Perno.
The game came down to the final possession as senior guard
Mical-Ryan Boyd stripped the ball from a Le Moyne player, before being fouled while attempting a 3-pointer from the left corner. He subsequently drained all three of his attempts from the stripe to get the Golden Knights within two, 65-63, with six seconds left.
However, Saint Rose was forced to stop the clock and senior forward Robert Jones III canned both of his free throw attempts at the other end to provide the final margin.
Boyd finished with 15 points to lead the Golden Knights (21-10), while senior forward
Julian Lipinski tossed in 14 despite battling foul trouble before picking up his fifth foul with 5:49 to go. Junior forward
Matt Cerutti added 11 points.
Senior guard Isaiah Eisendorf and Jones III scored 14 apiece to propel the Dolphins (26-6) who outscored Saint Rose 26-14 from the free throw line.
The Golden Knights missed nine of their first 10 shots that yielded a 12-2 deficit in the opening six minutes. They eventually whittled it to four, 22-18, with 5:05 remaining when Boyd converted a layup. However, the Dolphins responded with five unanswered points to push their lead back to nine before going in the locker room up 10, 35-25, at the break.
Le Moyne canned 54.5 percent (12-for-22) of its shots from the field and held Saint Rose to 35.7 percent (10-for-28) shooting throughout the opening 20 minutes.
Notes: Saint Rose made its 14
th NCAA Championship Tournament appearance in 2017-18. Lipinski, Boyd, and fellow senior
Jack Jones all joined the 1,000-point club this season. Lipinski finished 1,166 points, which pushed him past Tony Franks (1978-81) into 24
th place on the program's all-time scoring chart. Boyd and Jones closed out their careers with 1,138 and 1,023 points respectively. The squad's senior group of
Jamaal Greenwood and
Anthony Russell, along with Lipinski, Boyd, and Jones shared many experiences throughout their time in Golden Knights uniforms. They were again part of a nine-win team as freshmen, but went on to lead the Golden Knights to 49 victories throughout the past two campaigns. They furthermore accounted for 4,147 career points collectively.
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