Buffalo, NY - The D'Youville Men's Basketball Team won their first conference game of the season Saturday afternoon in thrilling fashion, defeating the visiting La Roche Redhawks in the final seconds 69-68.

Both teams came to play, as the two teams battled back and forth for the first 10 minutes of the first half. At the 9:41 mark, senior center Julian Reed (Cheektowaga, NY/Union-Endicott) threw down an emphatic dunk to make his and the D'Youville presence known, extending the Spartan lead to 21-16. D'Youville maintained their lead throughout the rest of the first half with a complete team effort. Six different players scored the final six baskets of the first half for the home team, taking a 31-26 lead into halftime.

An early surge from the Redhawks saw them bring the game to a 38-38 tie with 16:18 remaining in the second half. With just under 11 minutes left, La Roche opened up a 7 point lead off a made free throw. However, the resilient Spartans battled back to take a 56-53 lead at the 7:05 mark. The two teams pushed each other back and forth until the Redhawks took a 1 point lead with just over a minute left. D'Youville couldn't be kept down on this momentous Saturday as Reed made the game winning layup with 9 seconds left to give the Spartans a 69-68 win.

"This was a big win for us for a lot of reasons," said fourth year Head Coach Earl Schunk.

"Everyone contributed to the win, we executed at the end which you need to do to win close games and most importantly we beat a quality opponent so the guys know we can do it."

Twelve different players saw action for the Spartans on the afternoon. Leading the way was Julian Reed, scoring 19 points. Last season's leading scorer, Marcus Clarke (Olean, NY/Archbishop Walsh Academy) had a big day from behind the arc, going 3-4 and scoring 10 points overall. Clarke also added 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Junior Jon Gemerek (Cheektowaga, NY/Depew) had another strong game with 11 points. Like Clarke, Gemerek chipped in with 2 rebounds and 2 assists.

The 7 players who came off the bench for the Spartans came up huge for the team. Returning from a shoulder injury, guard Conor Gallivan (Elma, NY/Iroquois) had 4 points with 2 assists and 2 rebounds, playing huge minutes. Freshman Bayani Salinas (Antioch, CA/Antioch) also had 2 assists but added 3 rebounds. Freshman Adam Ibrahim (New Port Richey, FL/Ridgewood) played the most bench minutes with 13, and played solid defense grabbing 2 steals.

Starters Matt Insley (Wellsville, NY/Wellsville) and Nate Sweetman (Johnstown, NY/Johnstown) were huge on the stat sheet. Insley led the team with 7 assists while also scoring 6 points and grabbing 5 rebounds. Sweetman led the team on the glass with 6 rebounds and had 4 points.

Anthony Malone (Erie, PA/Mercyhurst Prep), Zach Blask (Portville, NY/Portville), Steve Kunelius (Oswego, NY/Oswego) and Kyle Violanti (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) just proved the depth of the Spartan squad by playing crucial minutes and making big plays down the stretch.

Coach Schunk gave his players a lot of credit for overcoming a slow second half start to win the game. 

"I'm really happy for the guys. They have been working extremely hard in practice and I believe they earned this one."

The men will look to continue their strong home play by taking on WNY conference rival Hilbert College on Monday, December 15th at 8:00pm in the College Center Gym for their last game before winter break.