Willie Zachery scored 14 of his team-high 19 points in the first half as the St. Lawrence University men's basketball team jumped out to an early lead thanks to better than 50 percent shooting from the field and beyond the 3-point line in the first half and the Saints coasted to a 91-73 victory over SUNY Plattsburgh Tuesday night in a non-conference game in Burkman Gymnasium in Canton.

The Saints (4-1) took advantage of a 54% shooting percentage (19-for-37) in the first half including hitting 12-of-23 3-point attempts to take a 54-35 lead after the first 20 minutes of action. The Cardinals (3-1), who entered the game averaging more than 100 points per game, could not close the gap to less than 18 points in the second half as St. Lawrence cruised to the victory.

"When we shoot that well we are going to be very tough to beat," said head coach Chris Downs. "We shot the lights out in the first half and then contained them in the second half. We finished the game with nearly 50 percent shooting."

Zachery led four Saints into double-digit scoring as Kyle Kobis netted 18 points including 4-for-7 from 3-point range, Ben Crawford score 12 and Riley Naclerio added 10 for the Saints. Naclerio and Crawford combined for 15 rebounds. Kobis handed out seven assists while Dom DeRegis had eight points, six rebounds and six assists off the bench. Kyle Edwards and Kieran Miller scored nine points each for the Saints.

A pair of 3-pointers by Kobis gave the Saints an early nine-point lead and consecutive 3-pointers by Zachery made it a 14-point St. Lawrence lead with 7:32 left in the opening half. DeRegis hit his only 3-pointer of the game at the 3:10 mark to extend the lead to 19 points and the Saints took the 54-35 lead into the halftime break.

Kobis started the second half with another 3-pointer as the Saints continued to hold the commanding lead for the remainder of the second half allowing Downs to use the entire bench for most of the final minutes of the game.

The Saints return to action with a pair of home games over the weekend entertaining Ithaca College Friday night and Elmira College Sunday afternoon.