Canton, NY – Junior Liam Ellis and sophomore Matt Higgins each accounted for 20 points as the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team claimed an 86-60 non-league victory over SUNY Canton on Tuesday evening.

The Golden Knights improved to 3-4 on the season and will take on Cazenovia College on Saturday afternoon. SUNY Canton dropped to 2-6 in 2017-18.

Liam Ellis buried a 3-pointer in the Knights' first possession of the game and Clarkson never trailed in the first half. The Roos tied the contest twice at 11-11 and 17-17 as both teams were scoring at a prolific pace in the first eight minutes, with each on track for over 100. A cold spell midway through the half affected both teams, but Clarkson rallied on a 3-pointer by Drew MacInnis with 7:16 to go. That bucket seemed to get things going again for the Knights as they closed the half on a 5-for-9 stretch from the 3-point line, and Liam Ellis capped off a 50-point first half with a layup at 0:03.

Clarkson shot 52.6% from 3-point line (10-for-19) and hit 51.6% overall (16-for-31). SUNY Canton also shot a solid 40.0% from distance, but nine turnovers limited the Roos chances, with Clarkson scoring 11 points off the home team's miscues.

Matt Higgins led Clarkson's scorers in the first half, tallying 15 points on 4-for-6 shooting from beyond the arc and Liam Ellis added 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field. Joe Lucas also contributed 10 points in just 11 minutes off the bench, while Gary Hanley produced a solid all-around line with 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. For SUNY Canton, Victor Bakre tallied seven points despite not starting the contest.

At the start of the second half, Clarkson nearly doubled up the Roos in the first 90 seconds when Matt Higgins hit a 3-pointer at the 18:31 mark to make the score 57-30, but SUNY Canton went on an 11-2 run to make sure the game didn't get out of hand. From that point on, the two teams essentially played even, with each making small runs before Clarkson substituted en masse late in the game and ran out the string.

In addition to the pair of 20-point efforts from Ellis and Higgins, Malaquias Canery notched 13 points and Lucas finished with 10 points. Hanley finished with 12 boards. For SUNY Canton, Bakre and Jordan Stewart each tallied 12 points.