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The Bearcats won their home opener with an impressive 75-67 victory over the La Roche College Redhawks in the Carey Center.

JC Howard got Saint Vincent off to a fast start with a three-pointer.  After La Roche tied the game, the Bearcats scored the game's next five points, thanks to a putback by Grant Latus and a three pointer by Isaac Turner.  Later, a pair of fast break scores by Turner ran the lead to eleven, 17-6, with 14:41 remaining.

After a timeout, La Roche regrouped, scoring four straight points, but a three by Chris Klimchock ran the lead back to ten, 20-10, with just under 13 minutes left in the half.

Five minutes later, a five-point run by the Redhawks cut the gap to just three, 24-21, before Armani Fountain scored to make the score 26-21, but the next five points belonged to the visitors, as they tied the game with 4:25 to go.

A baseline jumper by Dillon Stith, a free throw by Klimchock, and a jumper by Fountain then gave SVC a five-point edge, and the team held on to a 33-29 advantage at the break.

Baskets from four different players helped to increase the advantage to twelve, 47-35, after a trey by Turner at the 14:10 mark of the second half.

However, a four-point play by La Roche's Torin Smith with 9:52 remaining made it 49-44, but another jumper by Fountain and three free throws by Turner kept the lead intact.

The Redhawks, a team that went to the NCAA Tournament in 2012, were far from finished, eventually tying the game, 60-60 on a putback by David Jackson.  A drive and score by Lionel Perkins at the three minute mark gave La Roche its first lead of the game, but Chris Klimchock hit a three-pointer on SVC's next possession to return the lead to the Bearcats' side of the ledger.

A Howard pass found Stith for a score that made it 65-62 with 2:15 left, and after a miss by the Redhawks, a technical foul assessed to their bench sent Klimchock to the line with 1:14 remaining.  The next six points of the game all came from Klimchock at the charity stripe, as SVC built a 71-62 lead, and the Bearcats cruised to an 8-point victory.

Saint Vincent (2-1) was led by Klimchock's 24 points, which included an 11-13 showing at the free throw line.  Turner added 22 points on 7-15 shooting.  He was a perfect 5-for-5 at the free throw line.  Overall, SVC hit 18 of 22 at the stripe, while La Roche hit only 6 of 17 attempts.

Fountain joined his teammates in double figures with 10 points, while Howard added 7.  Klimchock had six assists against no turnovers on the day, while Howard tallied three steals.  Howard and Fountain each had five rebounds.

For the Redhawks (1-2), Ryan Frantz scored 18 points, while Joel McIntosh had 11 points and 12 boards.

The Bearcats will return to action at 3PM on Saturday against Carnegie Mellon on the road.