Courtesy St. Michael’s Sports Information
WORCESTER, MA. — Senior Jordan Guzman (Staten Island, N.Y./Xaverian) and first-year Kasai Brown (Brooklyn, N.Y./Millbrook School) both reached 30 points as the Saint Michael’s College men’s basketball team downed Caldwell (N.J.) University, 114-88, during Eric Eaton’s debut as a college head coach on Friday afternoon at Laska Gym in the Assumption College Tip-Off Classic.
RECORDS
· Saint Michael’s (1-0), Caldwell (0-1)
SAINT MICHAEL’S LEADERS
· Senior Jordan Guzman (Staten Island, N.Y./Xaverian), 31 points, 5 assists, 2 steals, 10-for-12 field goals, 9-for-10 three-pointers
· First-year Kasai Brown (Brooklyn, N.Y./Millbrook School), 30 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks, 9-for-16 field goals, 9-for-12 free throws (college debut)
· Junior Jason Heter (Andover, N.J./Newton), 17 points (career high) in 17 minutes, 7-for-8 field goals, 3-for-4 three-pointers
· Junior Walker Storey (Shelburne, Vt./Champlain Valley Union), 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3-for-5 field goals
· Sophomore Jontai Williams (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Hayes), 10 points (career high), 5 assists
· First-year RJ Sheridan (Jersey City, N.J./Marist), 8 points, 2-for-3 three-pointers
· Redshirt junior Thomas Jackson III (Middletown, Conn./Holderness School), 5 rebounds, 6 assists
OPPONENT LEADERS
· Senior Ruud Lutterman, 24 points
· Senior Eric Johnson-Alford, 15 points
· Sophomore Anthony Cooper, 12 points
· Senior Vaughn Covington, 12 points, 10-for-12 free throws
GAME FACTS
· The Purple Knights’ 114 points tied for seventh in program history and were their most since netting 117 against LIU Southampton during another neutral-site game on Dec. 12, 1998.
· Saint Michael’s tied a school record with 19 three-pointers, last reached at home against Southern New Hampshire University on Jan. 25, 2001. In all, the Purple Knights were 19-for-31 from deep (61.3%) while holding the Cougars to a 3-for-14 (21.4%) long-range showing.
· The Purple and Gold shot 67.9 percent overall from the floor, just shy of its school-record 69.6 percent at Saint Anselm College on Feb. 25, 1982.
· Saint Michael’s handed out 25 assists on 38 baskets while claiming a 38-24 rebounding advantage. The Purple Knights also went 19-for-25 (76.0%) on free throws, while Caldwell was 31-for-39 (79.5%).
· Guzman’s nine three-pointers were one short of a school record set by James Sorrentine ’08 on Dec. 10, 2005, and matched by Levi Holmes III ’19 on Jan. 31, 2018, in an overtime contest.
· Heter scored all 17 of his points in 13 first-half minutes before Guzman notched 25 points in the second half alone. With 31 points, he was two short of the career high he set last year against Saint Anselm.
· Eaton, who picked up career victory No. 1, spent much of his early coaching career as an assistant in the Worcester area, at Anna Maria College (1997-98 and 1998-99), Assumption (1999-00), and the College of the Holy Cross (2000-01 to 2003-04).
· The Purple Knights are 5-0 all-time against Caldwell, having last played on Dec. 30, 2012. The Cougars won at least 16 games each of the past three seasons.
THE ACTION
· Guzman and Brown buried three-pointers 40 seconds apart early in the contest to give the Purple Knights a 6-2 lead before a 10-2 run, which featured five points from Heter, made it 20-9 by 13:46 of the opening half.
· Saint Michael’s slowly ballooned its lead to 21, as Heter and Storey connected on back-to-back threes 28 seconds apart before Brown’s free throw made it 47-26 with six minutes to go.
· Lutterman scored 11 points to key a 20-4 run that took 4:03 to elapse, bringing Caldwell within 51-45 at 1:46.
· Heter’s lay-up pushed the Purple Knight advantage back to eight just before halftime and kicked off 15-4 run that spanned the intermission. Brown scored the first seven points of the second half, and Guzman canned consecutive treys 33 seconds apart to give Saint Michael’s a 68-51 advantage by 16:34.
· Caldwell crept as close as 12 on senior Ned Ogoemesim’s bucket at 15:19, but the Purple and Gold pulled away for good behind a 14-1 run, as Brown (6), Guzman (5) and Storey (3) shared the scoring. The Purple Knights led 82-57 following Brown’s free throw at 11:14.
· Saint Michael’s pushed its lead to 30 on a pair of occasions, when Brown put home a lay-up at 3:21 (107-77) and Sheridan knocked down a triple 26 seconds later (110-80).
NEXT SAINT MICHAEL’S GAME
· Saturday against New York Institute of Technology during the Assumption Tip-Off Classic, 4 p.m.