Greensburg, PA - After losing a close game to Penn St.-Behrend on Thursday, the D'Youville Men's Basketball Team came back in a big way, upsetting the conference leading Pitt.-Greensburg Bobcats Saturday afternoon by the final score of 96-80.

D'Youville and Pitt.-Greensburg played an even first 5 minutes with D'Youville leading 7-6 after Zach Blask (Portville, NY/Portville) made a three-pointer. Steve Kunelius (Oswego, NY/Oswego) backed up Blask's three-pointer with one of his own, making the score 10-6 D'Youville. The Bobcats went on a 12-1 run after Kunelius' three-pointer, taking an 18-11 lead.

Kunelius stopped Pitt.-Greensburg from pulling away, sinking 8 of the next 12 points scored by D'Youville to make the score 23-24 Bobcats. The home team would again begin to pull away, but D'Youville continued to fight back against one of the conference's top teams and tied the game with 2:33 left in the first half on a Marcus Clarke (Olean, NY/Archbishop Walsh Academy) three-pointer. Jon Gemerek (Cheektowaga, NY/Depew) made a layup on the team's next possession, giving the Spartans the lead. They would hold that lead and take it into halftime with the score 45-38.

D'Youville picked up right where they left off in the first half, as Matt Insley (Wellsville, NY/Wellsville) knocked down a three-pointer to get the team's scoring going. A block on the defensive end by Julian Reed (Cheektowaga, NY/Union-Endicott) led to a Jon Gemerek made basket and free throw, extending the D'Youville lead to 10.

Just under 5 minutes into the second half, Pitt.-Greensburg pulled within 7, but the Spartans would again hold firm. D'Youville poured on the offense, including 2 Julian Reed dunks and 6 points from Bayani Salinas (Antioch, CA/Antioch). Jon Gemerek added 9 points in that time span and D'Youville closed out the upset by the final score of 96-80.

"Winning against a quality team on the road is huge for us," said Head Coach Earl Schunk. "We faced adversity early when Julian got in foul trouble, and our young guys came through in a big way."

Of those young players, 3 freshman came up huge for the team. The sharp shooting freshman duo of Steve Kunelius and Zach Blask hit 4 three-pointers each and both took 2 steals, with Kunelius scoring 14 points and Blask with 16. Bayani Salinas started his second game in a row, recording career highs in both points with 12, and rebounds with 7. Both Kunelius and Blask also recorded career highs in points.

Of the veterans of the team, Jon Gemerek led all players with 20 points and 8 assists. Gemerek added 5 rebounds and a steal. Julian Reed scored 17 points and tied for the team high with 7 rebounds. Marcus Clarke added 10 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists coming off the bench.

Conor Gallivan (Elma, NY/Iroquois) started his first game of the season grabbing 3 rebounds and recording 2 points, steals and assists. Nate Sweetman (Johnstown, NY/Johnstown) contributed 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 points and a steal.

D'Youville had 6 players in double figures and shot an impressive 55.7% from the field, including 47.6% from behind the arc. The Spartans also recorded 7 more assists than the Bobcats and had 19 steals.

Coach Schunk saw his team play very well as the game went on, and hopes the guys can take that style of play and apply it towards the rest of the regular season and beyond.

"We showed a lot of poise against a very good team, especially throughout the second half" said the fourth year head coach. "Now we want to use the momentum from this win to get us a playoff spot."

D'Youville will face the team directly ahead of the in the AMCC standings on Wednesday, January 28th as they head to Hilbert College, looking to continue their strong road play.