Lyndonville, VT- The Vermont State University Lyndon men's basketball team held off a late Vermont State University Randolph rally to win a tough matchup by a score of 87-83. With the win the Hornets avenged their season opening loss to the Knits back in November and improves their record to 7-13. The Knights fell to 12-10.
Randolph scored the first for points of the game on baskets by Jaylon Calvin and Jaden Clark. the Knights maintained a slim advantage until Tyler Cooper (Sterling, NY) connected on a three-pointer to give the Hornets their first lead at 13-12, just over five minutes into the contest. The two teams battled on nearly even terms throughout the middle part of the half, but Lyndon closed on a 15-6 run to take an eight point lead into halftime.
Lyndon started very well the second half, and pushed their lead to thirteen points on a Matt Doyle (Whitesboro, NY) layup. As the half went on, the Knights made a run of their own and cut the deficit to just three points on a Calvin layup with 13:23 to go. Lyndon answered right back, and put themselves with a comfortable fourteen point lead with a dunk from freshman forward Deshawn Ford (Fort Walton Beach, FL) with 9:26 to go.
The Hornets struggled to score for the next several minutes, and the Knights took advantage of that. Randolph would cut down the lead down to one point when Xzavier Ivey connected on a three-pointer with 21 seconds left. Randolph would foul on the next possession, but the Hornets ouwld miss the front of a one and one. However Cooper came up with a huge offensive rebound on the free throw, and the Knights would foul senior guard Gregory Gonyea Jr. (Dolgeville, NY) and sent him to the free throw line for two clutch free throws which he would make. The lead was now 85-82 with the Knights having a chance to tie it. The Hornets fouled Will Jenkins to send him to the free throw line. He made the first free throw and missed the second with Tyler Bergmans (Ferrisburgh, VT) grabbing the rebound. Cooper would get fouled and make two huge free throws to seal the game.
The Hornets' bench outscored the Knights 22-4. The leading scorers for the Hornets were Cooper who scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds and Gonyea Jr. who scored 18 points. They were followed by Bergmans who scored 13 points and Doyle who almost had a double-double with 12 points and eight rebounds. Wesley McIntyre (Troy, NY) also reached double figures with 11 points while Ford finished with nine points and seven rebounds. Chad Martin (Henniker, NH) had a team best six assists
The leading scorer for the Knights was Jaden Clark with 21 points. Jaylon Calvin had a near quadruple double with 18 points, 11 assists, ten rebounds, adn nine steals. Shandon Anderson also scored 18 points.
The Hornets currently have a three-game winning streak and will face off in a North Atlantic Conference matchup against Lesley University on Friday. Tip off is at 7:30 pm.
