Springfield College Downs Men’s Basketball In Day One Action Of The Pioneer Valley Classic, 82-67

Box Score

AMHERST, Mass. – Elms College junior guard Daniel Gonzalez (East Windsor, Conn.) scored a team-high 15 points but Springfield College received a game-best 23-point output from Matt Cavalieri (West Warwick, R.I.) to help pace the Pride to an 82-67 victory over the Blazers in Friday night's Pioneer Valley Classic men's basketball game hosted by Amherst College.

With the loss, Elms falls to 3-1 on the season while Springfield evens its record to 3-3 overall. The Blazers will face No. 23 Amherst on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 3:00 p.m.

Trailing 72-57 with 3:28 to play in the contest, Elms' sophomore guard Brittain Purcelle (Tarrytown, N.Y.) missed a mid-range jumper that junior guard Bryant Corcoran (Wolcott, Conn.) collected for an offensive rebound and executed the put-back to pull the Blazers to within 13 at 72-59. From there, Springfield scored six straight points to extend its lead to 19 at 78-59 with 1:57 remaining in the game and held on for a 15-point victory.

With Springfield leading 16-14 at the 10:45 mark of the first half, Gonzalez swished a three-pointer to put the Blazers ahead 17-16, but the lead was short lived as Matt Pascuzzo (Wallingford, Conn.) converted a layup 45 seconds later that sparked a 27-10 run that the Pride stretched out over the remainder of the first period to post a 43-26 lead at intermission.

Gonzalez connected on a trio of three pointers in the opening 20 minutes netting 13 of his team-best 15 points in the first half.

In the second stanza, Purcelle nailed a pair of free throws at the 5:21 mark to cut the deficit to 12 (69-57) but that's as close as Elms would get as Springfield kept at least a 13-point cushion and led by as many as 20 on two occasions.

Purcelle finished with 10 points highlighted by a 4 for 4 effort from the stripe, while senior forward Juan Alverio (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico) drained 14 points and added a team-best seven rebounds.

Freshman guard David McDaniel (Plainfield, N.J.) scored eight points off the bench for the Blazers and added seven boards in the loss.

Cavalieri led all scorers and rebounders with 23 and 11 respectively, while Darvis Rankins (Boston, Mass.) notched 13 points and hauled in six rebounds.

Evan Christner (Voorheesville, N.Y.) downed 12 points off the bench for the Pride while Billy Harkins (Bellmore, N.Y.) delivered 11 points to round out four Springfield shooters in double figures.