Box Score

Purchase, NY (Feb. 10, 2013) – What a difference two months make.

Back in December, the Purchase College men's basketball team suffered a 23-point loss to Farmingdale State College at Farmingdale's home court. 

But Sunday, the host Panthers, who got double-figure scoring from five players, turned the tables on the Rams, with a resounding 84-65 win.

Purchase moves it overall record to 17-5 and 11-4 in the Skyline Conference, while Farmingdale is now 17-6 overall and 13-2 in conference play. Sunday's ballgame was a rematch of last February's championship tilt, which FSC won. The Rams then captured an early season victory this year before the Panthers put together a supreme effort on Sunday – a day after a winter storm rescheduled the matchup to Sunday.

With NBA scouts looking on for FSC's AJ Matthews, Purchase started the game fast, pushing out to a 10-2 run in the game's first four minutes, highlighted by a big 3-pointer from Justin Person (JR/Greenburgh, NY).

 But Farmingdale came back quickly, tying the game at 15 on a jumper by Curtis Williams.

A jumper by Purchase's Dan Odiase (JR/Bronx, NY) made it 17-15 at 12:55, but after Farmingdale's Ryan Davis hit a layup to make it 17-17 at 12:12, Purchase's Craig Davis (SR/Queens, NY) hit one of his several key shots in the game to put Purchase up 19-17.

While Farmingdale kept the game close during the rest of the first half, Purchase never lost the lead from there and at any point the remainder of the contest.

Up 41-37 at halftime, Purchase traded baskets with Farmingdale coming out of the halftime locker room, but Amar Reynolds (SR/Bronx, NY) was fouled while taking a 3 and made all three shots to push the Purchase lead to 10 at 50-40 at 16:56 to go in the game.

Farmingdale kept the game within a 10-12 point reach for several minutes , but eight straight points from Purchase's Andre Nixon (JR/Harlem, NY) – two 3-pointers and two free throws – gave the Panthers a 64-47 lead with nine minutes to go and the Panthers never really looked back.

Person topped Purchase in scoring with 19 points on 6-12 shooting from the floor and 5-6 shooting from the foul stripe. He also had a team-leading seven assists. 

Nixon and Joel Neri (SO/Port Chester, NY) had 15 points each, while Davis tallied 12 points and Ryan Lobban (JR/Bronx, NY) chipped in with 11.

Davis, Neri and Lobban were also tough on the boards, grabbing 9, 8 and 8 boards, respectively.

In all, Purchase won the battle of the boards 42-34.

Neri and Davis also did an outstanding job defending Farmingdale's Division III All-American Matthews, holding him to only 16 points, below his 22.3 points per-game average, but Matthews did grab 14 rebounds. 

Davis led Farmingdale in scoring with 17 points, while Terence Henderson tallied 11.

Purchase was 43.1 percent from the field, shooting a very hot 50 percent from three-point land. The Panthers held the Rams to 35.4% shooting from the field.  

Purchase has only one day off before returning to the court to host NYU-POLY Tuesday night at 6 p.m. in a key homestretch conference matchup.