PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The Medaille College men's basketball team lost a close game to the St. John Fisher Cardinals in their first game back from the holiday break at the Woodcliff Hotel & Spa Tournament. The Mavericks lost, 84-72.

The Mavericks started it off with two quick points off of a Cardinals shooting foul. Rodney Graves (Woodbridge, VA, Colgan) sunk both free-throws to put the Mavs on the board. They kept their lead until 13 minutes left in the half after two good free-throws from the Cardinals tied up the score 12-12. It would go back and forth from there. With five minutes left in the half, the Cardinals made a jumper that would help seal their lead heading into halftime. The Mavs were down 43-30.

The second half was started with points off of a turnover from Nick Carmichael (Ontario, NY, Wayne). He made a layup in the paint at 19:18. The Cardinals were doing their best to keep their lead. The Mavs were slowly chipping away at the deficit getting within five points with 9:50 left. Travis Sanders (Cleveland, OH, Euclid) hit a layup on a fast-break to make the score 60-55. From there, the Cardinals brought their lead back up into the double-digits and would stay there to finish the game. The Mavericks lost 84-72.

The Mavs shot 24-58 in the field, 12-29 in three-pointers, and 12-17 at the free-throw line.

Game leaders for the Mavericks were Graves with 19 points going 6-10, with seven rebounds and two steals, Bryce Smith (College Station, TX, A&M; Consolidated) with 12 points going 4-10, all four of those shots were threes, with one rebound and one steal, and Kendall McGill (Largo, MD, Largo) with 11 points going 3-13, with four rebounds and four assists.

In their final game of the tournament, the Mavs will take on the losing opponent of the RPI, Oswego State game that started at the end of this game. They will tip-off at 1:00 p.m. at the Manning & Napier Varsity Gym at St. John Fisher.