WORCESTER, Mass. - The Saint Michael's College men's basketball team held off Molloy (N.Y.) College, 93-88, on Saturday during the Assumption College Tip-Off Classic in Laska Gym to improve to 2-0 for the first time in five years.

RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (2-0), Molloy (0-2)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Senior Levi Holmes III (East Brunswick, N.J./Rutgers Prep), 37 points in 32 minutes, 2 steals, 7-for-10 three-pointers, 6-for-6 free throws
• Senior Derek Cheatom (Buffalo, N.Y./The Park School of Buffalo), 24 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 3-for-7 three-pointers, 7-for-8 free throws
• Junior Eli DiGrande (Essex Junction, Vt./Essex), 14 points, 10 rebounds
• Senior Winston Jones II (Valley Stream, N.Y./Valley Stream Central), 6 points, 6 rebounds
• Senior Jaylen Hall (Chicago, Ill./Lincoln Park/Richard J. Daley), 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals
• Junior Jordan Guzman (Staten Island, N.Y./Xaverian), 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Junior Nick Corbett, 33 points
• Senior Curtis Jenkins, 16 points, 11 rebounds
• Senior Mike Torre, 16 points, 10 rebounds

GAME FACTS

• The Purple Knights are 2-0 for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
• Saint Michael's leads the series 7-1, with the teams meeting for the first time since Nov. 15, 2015. Each of the last six contests were decided by nine points or fewer.
• Holmes pushed his career point figure to 1,361, passing Brian Young '89 (1,330) for 18th in program history.
• Holmes had 26 of his team's 53 first-half points. He finished with his sixth career 30-point game while recording his highest point total in a contest that did not reach overtime.

THE ACTION

• Hall's steal and lay-in gave the Purple Knights a 10-3 edge 1:57 into the game before Molloy drew even on a Corbett bucket at 16:43 of the opening half.
• Holmes responded with a personal 15-8 run in a 3:55 stretch, which included him hitting his first five shots. Saint Michael's led 25-18 at 12:21. Cheatom's triple at 10:41 pushed the lead to 10.
• Jenkins hit two free throws with 6:28 left to bring Molloy within 33-28 before the Purple and Gold pulled away on the strength of an 18-6 stretch. Five players scored in that time, with sophomore Walker Storey's (Shelburne, Vt./Champlain Valley Union) five points leading the way. Saint Michael's continued to lead by the 17-point margin at halftime, 53-36.
• The Purple Knights extended their lead to 21 points twice in the second stanza, including as Jones put home a lay-up at 13:16 (68-47), and Saint Michael's still led 87-72 on Cheatom's bucket with 2:13 left.
• Cheatom's two freebies kept his team ahead 89-77 with 1:13 to go, and Holmes knocked down a pair to make it 92-82 at 18.1 seconds.
• Corbett followed by draining a three at 12 seconds and Torre stole a Purple Knight breakout pass before dishing to Corbett for another triple with three ticks left that cut the margin to 92-88.
• Cheatom made a final free throw with 1.4 seconds remaining to end the contest.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Wednesday at Southern New Hampshire University, 7:30 p.m.
• That contest will be the Purple Knights' Northeast-10 Conference opener.