Grace's 21 Guides Mariners To Second-Straight Win

KINGS POINT, N.Y. - Junior guard Pat Grace recorded a season high 21 points and hit five three-point field goals as the United States Merchant Marine Academy men's basketball team defeated Buffalo State, 67-56, on Friday night for its second straight win. Sophomore guard Chad Ray and freshman forward Matt Hueber also set career highs in the contest.

USMMA improves to 2-7 overall while Buffalo State falls to 3-3.

We did well tonight," said Grace after the game. "We're really coming together. We had a really good week of practice. We are missing Matt (Oaks) and Rich (Roach) went down, but we still pulled it off and came through."

"I was really proud of our team today," added Head Coach John Krikorian. "I think we finally put together as best as we can at this time of year a full performance from beginning to end. That's a terrific team. For us to go out and shoot as poorly as we did and come away with a win against a very good team shows that our guys are starting to understand what we expect of them defensively. Everybody is contributing and we are pleased with the win."

Ray helped out the Mariners with a career high 18 points on a career best six three-point field goals and grabbed four rebounds. Hueber added four points and a career high 14 boards. Leading the way for the Bengals was Dion Mozelle with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Antonio Samedi pitched in 13 points and eight rebounds.

The Mariners started the game off up 1-0 after a made free throw by Max Paul, but soon fell down 8-1 in the next 2:30. USMMA got right back in to the game when it tied the game up 10-10 with 15:46 remaining. With 12 minutes remaining, the Mariners would take the lead and never look back the rest of the first half. The Mariners were able to build an 11 point advantage over the Bengals on two occasions, but Buffalo State was able to hold it to a nine point deficit at halftime.      

Leading the Mariners was Ray in the first 20 minutes with 12 points and three rebounds. Buffalo State was led by Samedi with 10 points and four rebounds.

USMMA got things started in the second half on a layup by Grace to increase the Mariner lead. Buffalo State fell into a 16 point hole with only 8:20 remaining in the game. The Bengals were able to come back and narrow the gap to seven points with 3:44 left, but the Mariners were able to hold them off for a 11 point victory

Leading the Mariners in the second half was Grace with 12 points and two assists. Buffalo State was led by Mozelle with 12 points and nine rebounds.

"We're definitely starting to mature," said Grace. "We're going harder in practice than we are going in the games, which made it easier (tonight)."

Krikorian was happy with the total team effort and also highlighted several individuals who really stepped up their game in the win.

"I think forwards Matt Bullard and Matt Hueber really did a nice a job on the backboard," said Krikorian. "They were very unselfish on the post. These freshmen did not play like freshmen and we were really happy to see them step up. Ryan Samuel controlled the game from start to finish with the ball in his hands and that made all the difference in the world. Pat Grace and Chad Ray stretched out the defense by knocking down threes, which is only going to help us."

The Mariners will look to win their third straight game on Monday, Jan. 7, when they play host to FDU-Florham.

"They are certainly going to be hungry to play us," added Krikorian. "We just need to turn right back around and be ready to go for 40 more minutes on Monday. We're looking forward to getting back in the gym to work on the things we need to work on. Then we'll just keep playing one game at a time."

Monday's contest is slated for 7:30 p.m. at the James Liebertz Gymnasium.