Pittsburgh, PA - The D'Youville Men's Basketball Team completed their season sweep over conference opponent La Roche Saturday afternoon by the final score of 77-65.

Julian Reed (Cheektowaga, NY/Union-Endicott) opened up the scoring for D'Youville on a made jump shot. La Roche tied the score at 6 with 5:13 gone by in the game, but three straight three-pointers from the sharp shooting Zach Blask (Portville, NY/Portville) gave D'Youville a 15-10 lead with 12:03 remaining in the first half. Marcus Clarke (Olean, NY/Archbishop Walsh Academy) scored the next 5 points for the Spartans, giving the team a 20-17 lead. Two Jon Gemerek (Cheektowaga, NY/Depew) made free throws opened up an 8 point lead for D'Youville.

La Roche fought back to trail 25-28 with 3:32 remaining in the half. After bringing the game within 2 a minute later, the Redhawks quickly found themselves back down by 5 after a Steve Kunelius (Oswego, NY/Oswego) good basket and a Nate Sweetman (Johnstown, NY/Johnstown) three-pointer on back-to-back possessions. Zach Blask capped off his strong offensive half with a layup to give D'Youville 37-30 lead going into the locker room.

As he did to open the game, Julian Reed made his presence known early in the half. Reed scored the first three baskets for the Spartans in the half, followed by a La Roche possession in which Reed recorded 2 blocks and a rebound. The home team tied it up at 43 with 14:51 remaining in the game, but Jon Gemerek converted an and-one opportunity to give D'Youville a 3 point lead.

Zach Blask carried his hot shooting over from the first half to the second, making a three-pointer to give D'Youville a 5 point lead with 12:25 left. La Roche tied the game with 6:38 left on the clock, but 3 baskets by Reed over the next 3 minutes helped send D'Youville up by 8. Late free throws from Nate Sweetman, Marcus Clarke and Zach Blask helped push the Spartan's lead out of reach for the Redhawks, with D'Youville winning by the final score of 77-65.

"Today was an important win for us," said fourth year Head Coach Earl Schunk. "Our depth was critical especially during the times when Julian was out of the game. A lot of guys made big plays that didn't show up on the stat sheet but were critical to us pulling away at the end and winning the game."

Zach Blask set a new career high Saturday afternoon, leading the team with 22 points. Julian Reed led all starters with 14 points and rejected the Redhawks for a team high 4 blocks. Matt Insley (Wellsville, NY/Wellsville) played well and tied for the team high with 6 rebounds. Insley included 4 assists, 3 points and an assist to his stat line. Jon Gemerek had 8 points with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

Marcus Clarke scored 12 points off the bench, with Nate Sweetman grabbing 6 rebounds and scoring 5 points off the bench as well. Returning from an injury, Adam Ibrahim (New Port Richey, FL/Ridgewood) led all bench players with 3 assists. Ibrahim also had a rebound and 2 points. Steve Kunelius scored 5 points, with Bayani Salinas (Antioch, CA/Antioch) scoring 5 points as well. Salinas also had 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists. 

Heading into the remainder of the season, Coach Schunk knows this game means a lot towards playoffs. 

"This also gets us back tied for the last playoff spot. We have to keep grinding it out."

The Spartans will look to get revenge against conference rival Medaille on Wednesday, February 4th at 8pm in the College Center Gym. Wednesday's game is the 'No More Game', an effort to end domestic violence and sexual assault.