PITTSBURGH – Chatham Men's Basketball (14-3, 11-1) survived another close contest, coming away with a 68-63 win against the Allegheny Gators (6-10, 4-7) on Saturday at the Athletic and Fitness Center.
In the win,
Simon Boyer became Chatham Men's Basketball's all-time leading scorer, surpassing Marcos Cintron's record of 1,277 career points.
Boyer led the Cougars with 20 points on 7-19 shooting and grabbed five rebounds.
Lovenson Xavier scored 16 points, including a 5-6 day from the foul line, and added five rebounds with three assists.
Diaun Pinkett netted 12 points with three rebounds and three steals, while
Hunter Verling and
Zavea Green combined for 13 rebounds.
Xavier opened up the scoring with a layup on the first possession, but Allegheny would score the next seven on their way to a five-point lead. Another bucket from Xavier sparked a 6-2 Chatham run that gave the Cougars a one-point advantage, but the Gators used three-pointers for their next two scores to go up 15-10. Chatham would fire back with three straight triples, including two from Pinkett, to surge ahead by four before Allegheny tied the game again at 19. The final seven minutes of the first half stayed tight, with neither team leading by more than four. The Cougars went into the halftime break up 32-30.
The first two score of the second half were threes from Boyer, which seemingly kickstarted his game offensively. However, with Chatham up by eight, Allegheny manufactured a 15-2 fun to go up 45-40 with 13:35 left. Chatham inched closer over the next four minutes before Boyer connected on another three to set the scoring record and give the hosts the lead back. The Gators responded with a 9-1 run to a 63-58 lead with under five minutes to play, but that's where Allegheny's offense would finish the day, as Chatham scored the final 10 points of the contest, including four more from Boyer.
The Gators (51.1%) outshot the Cougars (35.6%) drastically from the field, but the visitors committed 17 turnovers, and the hosts went 17-20 from the charity stripe.
Chatham Men's Basketball will return to action Wednesday evening at Waynesburg at 7 p.m.
