SCHENECTADY, NY – The Maritime College men's basketball team earned its fourth straight win to start the season on Saturday afternoon. The Privateers (4-0) scored the first 11 points of the contest and never trailed in a 74-61 victory over Hartwick (0-5) in the opening game of the Sig Makofski Invitational at Union College's Viniar Athletic Center.
Maritime got on the board just 12 seconds into the game and didn't allow a field goal until the 12:16 mark, when it was already 21-2. That bucket started a 5-0 Hartwick run that brought the Hawks within 21-7, but the Privateers responded with eight of the next 10 points to push the margin to 29-9. A
Jake Murphy (Rockville Centre, NY) jumper just before the halftime buzzer made the score 38-20 at the break.
Hartwick trimmed it deficit to 15 points, 40-25, early in the second half before the Privateers used a 27-10 run to open up their largest lead of the day, 67-35. After
Dylan Goodman (Syosset, NY) sank a trey to make it 72-48 with 4:12 remaining, the Hawks ended the game on a 13-2 rally. The 74-61 victory was Maritime's fourth consecutive double-digit triumph to begin the 2023-24 campaign.
Theo Noble (Bronx, NY) led three Privateers in double figures with a game-high 19 points. Murphy
contributed 15 points, while
Evan Block (Seaford, NY) nearly had a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds.
Aleksandar Begovic (Kotor, Montenegro) pulled down five boards, and
Tyler Anderson (Smithtown, NY) handed out seven assists. As a team, Maritime shot 49.1 percent (26-of-53) from the floor, 43.3 percent (13-of-30) from downtown, and 69.2 percent (9-of-13) at the free throw line.
Shea Barber tallied 13 points to pace the Hawks. Cooper Francis added 11 points, five rebounds and three steals for Hartwick, which went a combined 21-for-47 (44.7 percent) from the field. The Hawks were held to just 19 percent (4-of-21) shooting from long range and were 15-for-20 (75 percent) at the charity stripe.
With the win, Maritime moved into Sunday's tournament championship game. The Privateers will face host Union (4-0) at 4 p.m.
