Elmira, N.Y. – The Elmira College men's basketball team hosted the Hartwick College Hawks in an Empire 8 conference matchup on Friday evening. The EC Soaring Eagles collected their first conference win in an aggressive 80-66 dominating win over the Hawks. 
 
Play-By-Play
Elmira opened the scoring on their first possession of the game on a layup by Kelton Brown. The two teams traded baskets early on with the Soaring Eagles hitting a pair of three-pointers, one from Emmanuel Karkari-Mensah and the other from Alec Mercer, to take an early lead. AJ Graham hit a three for Elmira a few minutes later to cap off a 15-6 run. Hartwick responded with a 7-0 run of their own to cut the deficit to two points, ten minutes into the game. The Soaring Eagles regained momentum with a 9-2 run that included another three-point shot from Karkari-Mensah and Mercer, as well as a layup by Brown. The first half concluded with a defensive battle, with Hartwick outscoring Elmira 3-1 over the last 2 minutes of the half. Elmira held a 38-31 advantage at the end of the first half. 
 
Karkari-Mensah carried the Soaring Eagles offensive momentum into the second half by draining another three-point shot. Mercer followed with one of his own to put the Soaring Eagles up by 13. A layup by AJ Graham would cap off the 19-3 run for the Soaring Eagles to start the second half, putting them in front by 23. Hartwick used a 13-5 run of their own to try to propel themselves back into the game, pulling within 15 with seven minutes to play. The Hawks hit multiple three-pointers to cut the Elmira lead to ten with a little under four minutes remaining. An Alec Mercer three would recapture the momentum for the Soaring Eagles to cruise through the remaining few minutes and secure an 80-66 victory.
 
LEADERS
Kelton Brown led the Soaring Eagles with 22 points, shooting 80 percent and grabbed four rebounds. Tyler Cardello added 11 points and seven rebounds. Alec Mercer scored 12 points on four three-pointers. 
 
UP NEXT
The Soaring Eagles return home on Saturday afternoon, January 10^th, at 4:00 PM for a conference matchup with the Gators of Russell Sage College inside Speidel Gymnasium.