BROOKLYN – Pratt Institute jumped out to an early six-point lead, but Alfred State's defense rallied in holding the Cannoneers to sub-30 percent shooting in the visitor's 65-39 win Friday night at the Pratt ARC.
Guard Tommy Hutson led the Pioneers with 16 points on 8-10 shooting in 25 minutes, and forward Tyler Elliot added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds for Alfred State, which outrebounded the Cannoneers 45-33.
Pratt junior forward Ari Grant led all players with 20 points on 7-13 shooting, but foul woes limited the team's leading rebounder to 27 minutes. Freshman guard Andrew Yaglenski followed with 10 points, but Pratt shot only 28 percent (14-50) from the field, 3-17 from three-point range.
The Cannoneers controlled much of the early going, with a Grant trey from the top of the key opening up a 7-1 lead with 17:25 remaining in the first. A Hutson layup tied the contest at 13-13 with 9:00 in the half, but a Yaglenski three-point play on a feed from Tytus Millikan gave Pratt back the lead at 16-15 just over a minute later.
The Pioneers took control just inside the 4:00 mark, with an Eliott putback and a Justin Wallace three-poitner opening up a 22-16 lead, and Alfred went into halftime leading 24-19. Grant led all scorers with nine points at intermission, but his departure after picking up a second foul paved the way for the Pioneers to outrebound Pratt 25-17 in the frame.
Alfred State gained all the distance it would need in the opening minutes out of halftime. Two Hutson steals led to fast breaks the Brooklyn product finished on his own, putting the Pioneers on top 30-19 at the 18:00 mark. A 25-5 run to start the half was capped with a Mitch Luckman layup that put Alfred State ahead 49-24 with 11:41 left.
The Pioneers broke the game open in the closing minutes, with a Mitch Luckman three-pointer widening the margin inside the final minute to 65-39, which would be the final. For the half, Alfred State shot 57 percent from the floor (17-30), holding Pratt to a 24 percent (6-25) clip for the frame.
Millikan led all players with nine rebounds, and Jeff Liu added a career-high four boards off the bench for the Cannoneers.
At 5-7, Pratt plays host to King's (NY) College on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play at the ARC.
