Donte Gittens nets several huge baskets in first half rally for Ravens

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (February 1, 2014) – Senior forward Adrianos Vourliotakis Perdikaris (Cholargos, Athens) scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half to help lift the Franklin Pierce University men’s basketball team to an important 72-67 win at Le Moyne on Saturday afternoon at Ted Grant Court in Syracuse, N.Y.

The Ravens won their second straight to improve to 16-3 overall and 11-3 in the Northeast-10, while also picking up their first win at Le Moyne since the 2005-06 campaign. The Dolphins fell to 12-8 and 9-5 in league play.

Vourliotakis scored six of Franklin Pierce’s final eig;ht points during the contest’s final stretch to help the visitors seal the win.

With the Ravens clinging to just a one possession lead three times in the final minute, Vourliotakis came up huge, first at :42 with a jumper to make it 66-61, and then with a pair of free throws with :30 left to make it a 68-63 edge.

Once again, Le Moyne closed the gap to just one possession with :08 left at 70-67, but Vourliotakis drew a foul on the inbounds pass, and calmly drilled both free bee’s to push it back out to a two-possession advantage and no legitimate time left for the Dolphins to pull out the win.

Vourliotakis’ other six points in the stanza came early, but were at crucial moments to prevent Le Moyne from gaining the potential upper hand. His three just 75 seconds into the period knotted the score at 36-all, while his two free throws at the 14:30 mark put Franklin Pierce up one at 41-40. He hit another free throw about six minutes later to put the Ravens back on top, 53-52, in the close battle.

He was 2-for-3 from the floor in the second 20 minutes and 7-of-8 from the foul line. Vourliotakis also came up big on the boards with a team-high five rebounds. He ended up with nine boards in all.

Freshman guard Donte Gittens (Hartford, Conn.) joined Vourliotakis with 14 points, and had an all-around solid game with three rebounds, three assists, three steals, and a pair of blocks. Senior guard Andre Blackwood (Paterson, N.J.) came off the bench to bomb in four three balls and score a team-best 17 points.

Nate Gause paced Le Moyne with 17 points in a reserve role as well, while Nate Champion and Jim Janson followed with 13 apiece, and Qwadere Lovell added 10.

All four Dolphins had a major hand in Le Moyne scoring 20 of the game’s first 26 points a little more than nine minutes in. Champion and Gause buried three-consecutive triples to make it 20-6, and Stan Buczek hit a driving layup minutes later to make it 26-12.

The Ravens, however, were not about to let the game get away from them, and quickly countered, eventually outscoring Le Moyne, 21-6, the remainder of the half to take a miraculous 33-32 lead at the intermission.

Gittens got to the rim for four layups during the crucial sequence, while Blackwood went long range for a pair of three’s to add to it. Five Ravens, in all, scored during the rally, including a deep three from Tyler Iacuone (Mahopac, N.Y.), a layup from Curtis Christian (Harlem, N.Y.), and a pair of free throws late from Ryen Vilmont (Philadelphia, Pa.) to put Franklin Pierce on top at the half.

Both teams shot in the 40s for the game, but the three-point shooting was definitely in the corner of Franklin Pierce, as it shot 41 percent from long distance (9-of-22), while the Dolphins struggled at just 21 percent (3-of-14). All nine Ravens that played in the game scored. The Ravens also took care of the basketball by committing just six turnovers, thus limiting the number of possessions Le Moyne had late in the game to try and pull off a comeback.

Franklin Pierce returns to action Wednesday night when the Ravens get back to The Fieldhouse to open up a three-game homestand versus Saint Michael’s beginning at 7:30 p.m.

For more information on Franklin Pierce men’s basketball, please visit the team’s page at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu. To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men’s basketball apparel can do so on the athletic department’s online store at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)