COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College men's basketball team capped the regular season with an 85-69 victory over American International College on Tuesday in Ross Sports Center. The Purple Knights, this year's Northeast-10 Conference regular-season champions, received votes toward both national polls this week and were among 10 teams under consideration toward the first NCAA East Region rankings last week.
 
Saint Michael's begins its postseason journey on Sunday by hosting an NE10 Championship quarterfinal at 4 p.m. The top-seeded Purple and Gold faces the winner of Friday's first-round affair between No. 8 Assumption University and No. 9 The College of Saint Rose.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (21-7, 17-5 NE10), AIC (9-19, 7-15 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Sophomore Darrel Yepdo (Dracut, Mass./Brooks School), 20 points, 4 assists, 8-for-10 field goals, 2-for-2 three-pointers
• Senior Romar Reid (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Woodstock Academy/Manhattan), 18 points, 2 assists, 6-for-13 field goals, 5-for-6 free throws
• Junior CJ Crews (Tampa, Fla./Bayshore Christian School), 12 points, 3 assists, 4-for-5 free throws
• Junior Jacob Duniver (Fredericksburg, Va./Woodstock Academy), 11 points, 3 three-pointers
• Sophomore Alan Brzezinski (Örebro, Sweden/Western Reserve Academy), 10 points, 7 rebounds, 3-for-4 field goals, 2-for-3 three-pointers
• Sophomore Nolan Marold (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Brewster Academy/Loyola Chicago), 9 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 3-for-5 field goals

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Junior Justice Ellison, 23 points, 8 rebounds, 4 offensive rebounds, 10-for-22 field goals
• Sophomore Aguibou Balde, 19 points, 8 rebounds, 4 offensive rebounds, 7-for-14 field goals, 5-for-6 free throws
• Junior Jacob Barnett, 14 points, 5 assists, 4-for-8 field goals, 6-for-6 free throws

GAME FACTS

• Seventeen league wins are the second-most in program history, behind only the 2000-01 team's 19.
• With 21 wins, this year's Purple Knights have tied the fifth-highest total in school annals.
• The Purple Knights held AIC to a 4-for-18 (22.2%) three-point showing.

THE ACTION

• Yepdo's pair of buckets helped the Purple and Gold lead 8-2 by 17:08 of the first period, and he followed consecutive Reid baskets with a three-pointer at 13:17 to make it 16-4.
• Balde twice cut the deficit to three points, including on a jumper at 8:14 (20-17), but three straight three-point possessions by Saint Michael's pushed the lead to 34-23 by 3:50.
• Reid knocked down a pair of free throws at three seconds to extend the advantage to 13, and the hosts led 43-33 at halftime.
• Yepdo's lay-in had the Purple Knights in front 47-33 at 18:19 of the second stanza before Ellison and senior Jalen Jordan split scoring in an 8-0 response.
• However, Crews knocked down a three with 14:40 to go (50-41) before his trio of free throws at 13:50 sparked a 6-0 run that pushed the lead to 57-43.
• AIC never came closer than eight points down the stretch, as the hosts used one final 11-0 run to create a 71-52 margin with 5:42 left and put the game out of reach. Marold's seven points keyed the stretch.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Sunday vs. Assumption or Saint Rose, 4 p.m. in NE10 Championship quarterfinal.