ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Medaille College men's basketball team kicked off their official season tonight in the Mike Daley Memorial Tournament hosted by Nazareth College. The Mavericks faced the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Engineers in game one of the tournament, which ended in an 87-52 loss.

The Mavs were the first to put points on the board. Nick Carmichael (Ontario, NY, Wayne) was fouled early on, and made one of his two free throws. The Engineers would take it right down and make a layup to put them ahead. The Mavs would try and catch-up from there. They managed to keep the deficit to only 12 points, making the score at the half 43-31 in favor of the Engineers.

The second half started off with a quick layup from both teams, keeping the 12 point lead for RPI. The Engineers made two more layups, and started to pull away even more from the Mavs. They got themselves a 35 point lead to end the game, 87-52.

The Mavs shot 16-43 in the field, and went 17-26 at the free throw line.

Game leaders for the Mavericks were Rodney Graves (Woodbridge, VA, Colgan) with 14 points going 3-8 with three rebounds, Daunte Wilcott (Erie, PA, Mercyhurst Prep) with 13 points going 6-7, and Travis Sanders (Cleveland, OH, Euclid) with 10 points going 2-8 with six rebounds.

The Mavs look forward to day two of the tournament where they will play in the consolation game at 1:00 p.m. They will play the loser of Nazareth College and Cazenovia College who play tonight at 8:00 p.m.