POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Three Brewers scored in double figures to take a 66-61 victory over visiting St. Lawrence on Friday evening in the AFC. The win marks Vassar's first conference win this season and the team moves to 5-6 overall and 1-3 in the conference. Meanwhile, the Saints drop to 2-8 and 0-4 in the league.
Senior Josh Brownridge (New York, NY) had a career-high 10 points, while and juniors Lance Tebay (Virginia Beach, VA) and Zach Bromfeld (Woodmere, NY) also had 10 points each. Bromfeld also had 17 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the year.
Vassar opened with two straight triples from Tebay and McAuliffe. Then an inside jumper from Zach Johnson (San Francisco, CA) gave the Brewers an early 8-2 lead. St. Lawrence would chip their way back in, but a fastbreak layup from Brownridge at 8:58 pushed the lead to 24-13. Senior Kyle Kappes (San Diego, CA) found Brownridge again on the fastbreak soon after to push the Brewers' lead to 14. Vassar held a 36-23 lead with under two minutes, but a 7-0 St. Lawrence run cut the advantage to 36-30 at the half.
Vassar went on a 7-2 spurt to start the second before five straight Saints' baskets made it 43-42. The Brewers rebuilt some momentum when Tebay broke through the defense, making a two-handed dunk off a Jack Rothenberg (Yardley, PA) feed.
St. Lawrence went on to tie the game 47-47 at 9:28, but they never were able to take the lead. Another Tebay dunk spurred an 8-3 with baskets from Bromfeld and Johnson. Vassar slowly kept pulling away, and a three-pointer from Kevin McAuliffe (Bethesda, MD) made it 61-55 with 2:40 remaining. In the final minute, St. Lawrence intentionally fouled. First-years Avni Mustafaj (Yonkers, NY) and Ellis Ethan (Silver Spring, MD) both made two close the game out.
The freshmen duo of McAuliffe and Johnson finished with eight points each, while Mustafaj had seven. Johnson grabbed eight boards with three assists and two steals. Tebay led the team with four assists and two blocks.
For St. Lawrence, Trent Adamson had a game-high 20 points and five blocks with seven rebounds. Chris Jeffrey grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the Saints.
Vassar is back at the AFC tomorrow at 4 p.m. to host Clarkson in Liberty League play.
