HOUGHTON, NY – Zion Baitey scored 19 points to lead the Alfred Saxons past the Houghton Highlanders in the regular season finale for both teams, 75-54.
 
In the first half the Saxons shot an impressive 64 percent (7-of-11) from beyond the arc, capitalizing on an early 11-0 run to open up a double-digit lead on the Highlanders.
 
Houghton would never recover. 
 
At one point the Highlanders trimmed the deficit to only six points, only to have the Saxons stretch their lead to 17 points at the half.
 
While Houghton played far more evenly with Alfred in the second half, they never pulled back to within single digits, and the Saxons' defense never allowed the Highlanders to find a rhythm.
 
GAME VITALS
Score: Houghton – 54 | Alfred – 75
Records: Houghton: 13-12 (8-8 Empire 8) | Alfred: 14-11 (10-6 Empire 8)
Venue: The Nielsen Center, Houghton University | Attendance: 253

NOTABLE STATS
>> Jajuan Preaster scored a team-best 15 points and pulled down seven rebounds.  With at least one game left in his career, he now has 1,461 career points, only 20 points behind Dylan Lambert ('19) for sixth place on the all-time Houghton scoring board, and only 42 points behind fifth-place-holder Darren Berkley ('93).
 
>> Lou Bellamy collected 14 points and eight rebounds.  He has crossed the double-digit scoring threshold 21 times this season.
 
COACH'S CORNER
"Not a whole lot to say about this one. It was disappointing in a lot of ways. I wanted the seniors to have their last game at Nielsen be memorable for all the right reasons.

"We were not ready to play, but worse, our demeanor and communication were both pretty poor, which are things we should be able to control and execute well regardless of how we are playing.
 
"We need to turn the page quickly and start prepping for the conference tournament, but we also need to do some self-evaluation to make sure this doesn't happen again in the tournament on Saturday." -- Head Coach Jeremy Bialek

UP NEXT
The Highlanders head into the Empire 8 conference championship tournament as the number seven seed and with play either Utica or Nazareth in the quarterfinal round on Saturday, February 22.