HOBOKEN, N.J. (December 29, 2023) - First-year Xander Singh scored 16 points, grabbed six rebounds, and added two assists as the Stevens Institute of Technology men's basketball team defeated Amherst 81-62 on the first day of the Stevens Men's Basketball Holiday Tournament Friday afternoon inside Canavan Arena.

The victory gets the Ducks (8-2) back on track after they fell to Middlebury in their previous contest. They have won eight of their last nine games. Stevens is now 1-1 against the Mammoths all-time. Stevens will now face the winner of WPI vs Gettysburg in the championship game tomorrow at 5 p.m., while Amherst will face the loser of the WPI/Gettysburg matchup at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Amherst fell to 7-4 overall.

Stevens jumped out to a big early lead and never looked back as the Ducks opened the game on a 15-4 run. Four different Ducks contributed on the run, led by first-year Kyle Maddison, who dropped five during the nine-minute run. Following an Amherst basket, Stevens made back-to-back threes as Singh and sophomore Matt Leming each buried a triple. Stevens extended its lead to 17 at the 6:58 mark as Singh was able to make another basket down low. The lead would grow to as much as 21 in the half for the home side, but Amherst responded with a 6-0 run to trim the deficit, and even got it to within 11 with eight seconds to go in the half. Leming would make another three as time expired in the first half to give the Ducks a 37-23 lead at the break.

Just 28 seconds into the second half, junior Jack Spellman made a three to put Stevens back up 17. Amherst would respond with a bucket, but graduate student Stephen Braunstein responded to that with a triple to push the advantage to 18. He would make another from deep at the 14:32 mark which made the score 50-32 in favor of the Ducks. First-year Ritchie Machado got the action from deep as he made his first triple of the game with 13:12 to go. Three minutes later, Machado crafted his way to a two pointer that gave the Ducks a lead of 22. Stevens' largest lead of the game was 25, which came courtesy of a basket from senior Mike Goodall with just over six minutes left in the half. Amherst would be able to cut the deficit a little, but not enough to make the game close as Stevens ran away with a 81-62 victory to kick off the first of four games inside Caravan Arena.

Top Performers

• Singh shot five-of-seven from the field and also made five free-throws.
• Braunstein scored 13 points and added two rebounds.
• Spellman tallied seven points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
• Graduate student Conor Coffey controlled the game as he finished with six assists.
• Maddison scored 12 points on a 100% shooting performance.
• Stevens shot 43.3 percent (26-60) from the field and 38.5 percent (10-26) from three. The Ducks also went 19-26 (73.1%) from the line.

The Opponent

• Charlie Randall scored 13 points and had seven boards.
• Will Scherer secured a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
• Noah Helmke added 11 points.
• Amherst shot 36.2 percent (25-69) from the field and 30.8 percent (4-13) from three. They also went 8-11 from the free throw line (72.7%).

Around the MAC Freedom

• King's 100, Penn College 94 F-12/13
• Delaware Valley 56, NYU 98 F-12/16
• Gwynedd Mercy 58, Lebanon Valley 73 F-12/16
• Scranton 61, Arcadia 70 F-12/17
• DeSales 74, Muhlenberg 60 F-12/17
• Misericordia 92, Willamette 101 F-12/19
• Goucher 69, Delaware Valley 86 F-12/19
• Misericordia 82, Whitman 94 F-12/21
• Misericordia 74, CCNY 80
• Hamilton vs. DeSales 5:00 p.m.

Up Next: The Ducks return to the court tomorrow as they host the winner of WPI vs. Gettysburg tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the Stevens Men's Basketball Holiday Tournament Championship game. Links for live stats and video are posted to stevensducks.com