SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The Saint Michael's College men's basketball team lost to American International College, 81-72, on Thursday evening during Northeast-10 Conference action in Butova Gymnasium.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (4-10, 0-6 NE10), AIC (3-10, 2-3 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Senior CJ Crews (Tampa, Fla./Bayshore Christian School), 20 points, 4 assists, 3 steals, 4 three-pointers
• Junior Nolan Marold (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Brewster Academy/Loyola Chicago), 18 points, 10 rebounds, 6 offensive rebounds, 3 assists, 4-for-8 field goals, 10-for-11 free throws
• Senior Jacob Duniver (Fredericksburg, Va./Woodstock Academy), 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 three-pointers

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Junior Justice Ellison, 28 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 10-for-12 free throws
• Junior Jack Hall, 21 points, 5-for-12 three-pointers
• Junior Reece Brown, 14 points, 3 steals, 6-for-9 field goals
• Senior Lovre Zaja, 9 rebounds, 6 assists

THE ACTION

• The teams remained within two possessions of one another nearly throughout the opening half, until less than two minutes remained.
• After first-year Rico Byrd (East Moline, Ill./The Kiski School) converted a three-point play at 2:59 to bring Saint Michael's within 30-28, Hall scored five points in a half-ending 7-0 run, providing AIC its largest lead to that point (37-28).
• Duniver and Crews buried threes to key an 8-0 run to start the second half that made it 37-36 at 16:45.
• AIC continued to lead by no more than five points until Brown's breakaway dunk provided his team a 52-45 advantage at 11:59, and Hall's triple at 9:03 made it 57-49.
• Marold netted six points in a 2:33 span to spark a comeback before Byrd knocked down a three with 2:53 to go, and the Purple Knights were down just 67-66.
• Zaja responded with a three-pointer 14 seconds later before Brown converted a steal into a breakaway dunk 10 seconds after that. Clinging to a four-point lead with a little more than two minutes to go, AIC went 9-for-12 from the charity stripe down the stretch to salt away the win.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Sunday vs. Adelphi University, 3:30 p.m.
• The Panthers were tied for third in the latest D2 CSC East Region poll.