Brandon Benjamin tallied 18 points to lead Fairfield University to a 97-83 win over the Le Moyne College men’s basketball team on Saturday at Ted Grant Court.
Graduate student forward Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central/Vincennes/Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) just missed a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds, while adding three blocks.
Redshirt junior guard Trent Mosquera (Boston, Mass./Belmont Hill School) also recorded 18 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists. Junior guard Samuel Hincapie (Medellin, Colombia/Gateway Legacy Prep (Mo.)/Lake Land College) turned in 10 points off the bench.
Benjamin tallied 10 of his points in the first half, while adding eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Deuce Turner and Declan Wucherpfennig each recorded 17 points, while Turner had three assists and Wucherpfennig grabbed four rebounds. Braden Sparks posted 10 points and seven rebounds.
The Stags opened the game with eight of the first 10 points, including six by Wucherpfennig.
Mosquera drained a three-pointer with 13:43 left to get the Dolphins within 13-10, but the Stags answered with 14 of the next 15 points for a 27-11 lead. Benjamin had six of the points, Turner had five and Nasir Rodriguez capped the stretch with a shot beyond the arc.
The Dolphins slowly whittled its deficit down to 39-31 with 4:56 remaining. Mosquera buried a pair of three-pointers in the run, while redshirt sophomore forward Trevor Roe (Syracuse, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius/Radford) had five points in the stretch.
Following back and forth action over the next two minutes, Fairfield closed out the half with nine of the last 10 points to take a 56-38 lead at halftime.
Fairfield scored six of the first eight points in the second half to take its largest lead of the game at 62-40 with 17:37 remaining.
Following a basket by Turner to give the Stags their last 20-point lead of the game, the Dolphins scored seven straight points. Junior guard Tennessee Rainwater (Davenport, Wash./Davenport/Utah Tech) scored the first five points and then Jackson made a lay-up.
The Stags extended their lead back to 19 with 9:32 left with a 13-7 run. Rodriguez scored five of the points and Michael Rogan had four.
After the teams traded points over the next two minutes, the Dolphins scored nine points in a row to get back within 10. Freshman guard Josiah Lee (Snohomish, Wash./Glacier Peak) made a three-pointer, Jackson had four of the points, while Mosquera scored the final two.
Following a basket by Benjamin to push Fairfield’s lead back to 11, freshman guard Eli Greenberg (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville) drained a three-pointer and Jackson made a lay-up around a Turner free throw to get the Dolphins to 86-79 with 2:10 left.
Fairfield went 9-of-10 from the foul line over the last 1:24 to close out the game.
Le Moyne (2-4) is back in action on Friday at Lafayette College at 4:30 p.m. in the first game of The Lafayette Classic.
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