Buffalo, NY - The D'Youville Men's Basketball Team tipped off their home schedule Sunday afternoon by falling to the visiting SUNY Canton Kangaroos 75-65.

The D'Youville offense came out firing, taking an early 14-4 lead just over 7 minutes into the game. Out of those 14 points, 12 were from three pointers. SUNY Canton began to chip away at the Spartan lead until they overtook D'Youville on a three pointer with 1:16 left in the first for the 28-26 lead. Canton carried a 31-26 lead into halftime after hitting a second straight three.

SUNY Canton began to run away with the game in the second half, holding an early 42-32 lead. D'Youville wouldn't let the Kangaroos get too far out of reach, as they pulled within 4 with just over 11 minutes remaining. Canton again began to pull away by hitting several big shots, ultimately winning the game by the final score of 75-65.

Fourth year Head Coach Earl Schunk acknowledged that his team didn't play a full game. "We got off to such a fast start that we forgot the game was 40 minutes long," said Schunk. 

Junior Jon Gemerek (Cheektowaga, NY/Depew) led the Spartans in scoring with 19 points. Adding 7 rebounds and 3 assists, Gemerek turned in another strong all-around performance to his young season. Gemerek made several hustle plays, diving onto the floor for loose balls, creating contact going to the basket and running out of bounds to save the ball.

In the first half, D'Youville attempted 13 three pointers, making 6 of them. All of those long range attempts may have hurt the Spartans more than it helped them, according to Schunk. "Hitting all the permitter shots actually hurt us because we settled for too many of them," said Schunk.

In all, 29 three point shots were attempted by the Spartan offense, with 10 total going in. Each starter on the D'Youville offense made at least one three pointer, with sophomore Matt Insley (Wellsville, NY/Wellsville) and junior Marcus Clarke (Olean, NY/Archbishop Walsh Academy) both making three each.

Senior center Julian Reed (Cheektowaga, NY/Union-Endicott) added 16 points to the D'Youville total. Reed led the team in rebounds with 9 and blocks with 4. 

Moving forward, Coach Schunk knows the team needs "to refocus on all the little things that make us successful and we will be fine."

The next game for the D'Youville Men's Basketball Team is on Wednesday, December 3rd at 8:00 PM. D'Youville will head to Penn St.-Behrend to take on the Lions in the first conference game of the season for both teams.