ROANOKE, Va. (Nov. 15)- The Saint Vincent men's basketball team defeated William Peace University 74-68 to open up their first game in the Roanoke Tip-off Tournament on Friday night.

The Bearcats (2-0) led by just one at the half (33-32), before outscoring the Pacers (0-1) 41-36 in the second half. Saint Vincent shot an impressive 50% (17-34) from the field in the second half to help them defeat William Peace.

Five Bearcats scored in double figures to help SVC to their second consecutive win to open the season. Freshman, Matthew Puodziukaitis led the way for Saint Vincent with a game-high 16 points, while also grabbing seven rebounds. Dev Ostrowski and Osyon Jones had identical stat lines with 14 points, five rebounds, and three assists for the Bearcats. 

Mike Iuzzolino added 13 points on 5-10 shooting, including 2-5 shooting beyond the arc, while he also grabbed three boards. Maxwell Gordon added 11 points and four assists, while Jevontae Jones scored six points on 3-5 shooting, while also dishing out two assists.

Saint Vincent controlled the early portions of play in the first half as they held a five point advantage at 14-9 over the first six minutes of the opening half. Over the next eight minutes of play the teams traded buckets back-and-forth with Saint Vincent still holding that five point lead at 24-19. A successful three-pointer from Iuzzolino followed by a layup from Osyon Jones gave the Bearcats their first double-digit lead of the night at 29-19 with four minutes and change remaining in the half.

Over the next four minutes, the Pacers went on a 13-2 run as the Bearcats found themselves trailing 32-31 with under a minute left in the half. An Osyon Jones layup with just over ten seconds left in the half put the Bearcats up 33-32 at the halftime break. William Peace shot an impressive 52% (14-27) in the half, while SVC shot just 37% (14-38), but the Bearcats still held the halftime lead.

It was a different story in the early portions of the second half as Saint Vincent came out of the locker room with all of the momentum. Quickly, the Bearcats opened their lead back up to double digits after a 12-2 run out of the gates put the Bearcats up 45-34 less than four minutes into the half. The hot shooting for SVC continued over the next six minutes, a successful jumper from Ostrowski put the Bearcats up by 18, their largest lead of the game, 61-43 about halfway through the half.

The Saint Vincent lead remained in double digits over the next several minutes. William Peace made one final push cutting the lead to nine (72-63) with just over one minutes remaining in the game. Ostrowski completely sealed the game shut at the foul line for the Bearcats with two free throws late in the game as the Bearcats held on for the 74-68 win.

Overall, SVC shot 43% (31-72) from the field in the game, while also shooting 4-14 (27%) from beyond the arc, and 8-11 (73%) from the foul line. Saint Vincent scored 44 points in the paint, while limiting William Peace to just 26 points in the paint. SVC also had 12 second chance points, while the Pacers totaled just six of their own. After allowing the Pacers to shoot 51% from the field in the opening half, Saint Vincent limited the Pacers to shoot just 37% from the field in the second half. 

SVC forced 22 William Peace turnovers in the win as well.

The Bearcats will return to action tomorrow, Saturday, November 16 when they take on Roanoke. Tip-off is scheduled at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon as the Bearcats and Maroons will conclude the Roanoke tip-off tournament.