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UTICA, N.Y. --
Tyler Stenglein led all scorers with 24 points Saturday as visiting Nazareth overcame a slow start to rally past Utica for an 81-66 men's basketball victory.
The Golden Flyers triumphed for the 10th straight time to improve to 14-3 overall and 8-0 in the Empire 8 Conference. Utica is 10-7 overall and 4-5 in the E8. The Golden Flyers have a two-game advantage over St. John Fisher and Alfred in the E8 standings and will be back home to host Elmira Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Stenglein was solid for the Golden Flyers from start to finish Saturday, scoring 15 of his points in the second half to enable Nazareth to pull away. He made 7 of 12 shots from the field and went 10-for-11 from the foul line.
Jake Burgio and
Zach Stenglein also reached double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively.
Brendan Wind added nine points and seven assists.
The Golden Flyers had a difficult time getting shots to fall in the early going as Utica scored the first nine points of the game and led by as much as 13 points, 31-18, with as little as 3:25 left in the first half. Nazareth closed the half with a 14-2 scoring run and trailed by just one point, 33-32, at the break.
Tyler Stenglein scored seven of his points during the run and
Cody Green nailed a three-pointer before the halftime horn sounded to cap the scoring spree.
The teams exchanged scores for the first eight minutes or so of the second half before Nazareth gradually pulled away. Nazareth led by one, 52-51, wth 13:18 left and then got a basket by
Kevin Underwood, a pair of free throws by
Tyler Stenglein, a three-pointer by
Zach Stenglein and a basket by
Chris Jones to go up 61-53 with 11 minutes to play.
The lead reached double digits when
Zach Stenglein scored with 4:32 left.
Nazareth outscored Utica 49-33 in the second half, thanks to hot shooting. The Golden Flyers made 17 of 27 shots (63%) with two three-pointers. For the game, they went 18-for-23 from the foul line (78.3%).