Men’s Basketball Comes Back for Double-Digit Win
ROCHESTER, NY – Graduate student Jordan Haggard scored a career-high 27 points with a perfect 5-for-5 from 3-point range Tuesday night to lead the Nazareth University Men’s Basketball team to an 84-73 victory over Keuka College in the final regular season Empire 8 home game for the Golden Flyers.
Nazareth (16-6 overall, 13-1 Empire 8) led by as many as six points in the first half but a hot-shooting Keuka (9-10, 7-5 Empire 8) squad battled back on the strength of 17-for-30 (57%) shooting in the first 20 minutes as the Wolves took a late lead in the period and led 43-40 at the break.
Haggard had three 3-pointers early in the first half and added two more in the opening minutes of the second period to help Nazareth regain the lead. A 3-pointer by fellow graduate student Logan Blankenberggave Nazareth a seven-point lead at 53-46 two minutes into the half.
A basket by Haggard stretched the lead to nine points but Keuka battled back and trimmed the lead to three at 64-61 with 8:53 to play.
Junior Luke Insley scored a pair of baskets and sophomore Jaylen Savage added a bucket in a 6-0 run as the Golden Flyers regained the nine-point edge.
Another run for Keuka trimmed the lead to four points with 3:33 remaining but a final scoring run led by a 3-pointer from sophomore Solomon McFarlane , a pair of free throws from Blankenberg and a short jumper by Insley as Nazareth stretched the lead to 11 points at 80-69 with under two minutes to play.
With 12 points and 11 rebounds, Savage had his third double-double of the season. Blankenberg scored 17 points, Insley added 12 and McFarlane chipped in 11 for Nazareth. Insley kept his hold on the national lead in assist-to-turnover ratio with five assists and just one turnover.
The Golden Flyers will be back in action at home at 7:30 p.m. Friday with a non-conference game against SUNY Morrisville. The Mustangs enter the game with a 20-3 record and ranked No. 4 in NCAA Region I.