Lyndonville, VT - The Vermont State University Lyndon men's basketball team took to the court for the first time in 2026 on Friday afternoon, hosting Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in a non-conference matchup.  The Hornets used a late first half run to open up an 18-point advantage at halftime, then withstood a late Trailblazer rally to come away with an 85-74 victory.  Lyndon improved to 5-6 on the season, while MCLA fell to 3-6.

With MCLA leading 13-8 just over seven minutes into the contest, the Hornets went on a quick 10-1 run, capped by a Max Kocha (Palm Beach Gardens, FL) basket off of a turnover, to take a four point advantage.  MCLA answered with four quick points to tie things, but Lyndon closed the half on a 29-11 run over the final 8:25 of the half to take a 47-29 lead into intermission.  Wesley McIntyre (Troy, NY) scored 18 of his team high 22 points in the opening stanza to ignite the Lyndon run.

The Hornets pushed their advantage to 21 points following a Gregory Gonyea Jr. (Dolgeville, NY) layup off of a Kocha feed with just under 15 minutes to go.  The lead stayed comfortably in double figures until the Trailblazers used a 13-5 run to cut the margin to ten points with 3:24 to go.  MCLA finally got the margin back to single digits when Craig Williams turned a Lyndon turnover into points to make it 82-74 at the 1:17 mark.  That would be as close as MCLA would get, as an Xavier Rainwater (Frisco, TX) free throw and two Gonyea fre throws accounted for the final margin.

Gonyea finished with 18 points, four rebounds, and four assists for Lyndon.  Kocha also reached double figures with ten points and added six rebounds and five assists.  Alex Leslie (Dalton, NH) was four for four from the floor and scored nine points.  Rainwater chipped in eight points and notched seven assists without committing a turnover.

Frank Field tied McIntyre for game high honors, pacing MCLA with 22 points.  Williams finished with 14 points while Jayden Mills and Leondre Sanchez added 11 and ten points respectively.

Lyndon will travel to Maine on Monday and Tuesday for a pair of North Atlantic Conference contests.  The Hornets will face the University of Maine at Farmington on Monday afternoon at 3:00 pm.  The following day they will have a 1:00 pm tip off at Maine Maritime Academy.