Elmira, NY -- The Elmira College men's basketball team scored the first basket of the afternoon, a three-pointer from Justin Henderson '16, and never looked back, defeating Houghton College, 72-58. Neil Randolph '15, in his return to the starting lineup, scored a game-high 20 points in 35 minutes of action.
 
Randolph scored in a variety of ways for the Soaring Eagles, doing damage from behind the three-point line with three made three-pointers and at the free throw line where he shot 7-of-8. Close behind Randolph in the scoring column was Oladapo Badmos '17, who followed up his 18-point performance last night with 19 points against the Highlanders. Badmos wreaked havoc all day on Houghton's defenders, using his speed and ball-handling skills to draw a number of fouls. In total, Badmos racked-up 16 free throw attempts in the game and made 10 of them.
 
Also turning in double-digit scoring performances were Justin Henderson '16 and David Borelli '15. Henderson continued to flash his range, hitting 3-of-7 from behind the three-point line, and also added two free throws late to give him 11 points. Borelli played a huge role in today's victory. Not only did he post his second career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, he played extremely tough defense against Houghton's bigs and also added two blocks and a steal.
 
Gino Leonardi '16 made his presence known early as he scored or assisted on four of EC's first five baskets. Leonardi had five quick points, two layups and a converted and-one, and also assisted on both Ryan Chocek's fast-break layup and Randolph's first three-pointer of the game. Even with Leonardi's exceptional guard play, EC only led by three, 13-10, four minutes into the game.
 
The two teams traded baskets, with Elmira's lead getting no bigger than six points for much of the first half, but another three from Randolph pushed it to seven points at the 3:37 mark of the first half for the largest lead of the game thus far. A pair of Randolph free throws once again made it a seven-point game, 32-25, but Houghton went on a 7-0 run over the next two minutes to tie the game at 32 with 29 seconds left in the half. With just a couple seconds left on the clock, Randolph caught a pass near the top of the key and elevated for a three-pointer. As he was releasing the ball, Randolph was fouled by Houghton's Johnathan Stowe, putting one of EC's top free-throw shooters on the line for three shots. Randolph hit all three, giving Elmira a 35-32 advantage at halftime.
 
Henderson once again opened the half with a three-pointer, immediately pushing the Purple and Gold's lead to six to open the second half, but a 7-2 Highlander run made it just a one-point game just minutes later. EC's lead hovered around four points for the next eight minutes of gameplay as Houghton did everything they could to keep the game within reach.
 
The Purple and Gold led by four, 49-45, with 8:01 to play, but it was at that point that the Soaring Eagles took over. EC scored the next six points to push their lead to double-digits for the first time and then stretched it out to 14 points after Randolph's third three-pointer of the afternoon with 2:42 left in regulation. Elmira did not record a field goal in the final 2:42 of regulation, but did hit 8-of-12 from the free throw line to close out the 72-58 victory.
 
EC, at 3-2 in the Empire 8 Conference, hits the road for a pair of critical conference games next weekend. The Soaring Eagles will travel to both Hartwick College and Stevens Tech, with EC going up against the Hawks of Hartwick first, on Friday, January 16th at 8:00 p.m.