Canton, NY – The SUNY Canton men's basketball team received a pair of big performances from seniors Sam Annorh and Romario Fletcher as they earned a 90-86 win v. visiting Pine Manor College on Wednesday evening.

With the win in the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Tournament the Roos will advance to play tournament host Penn State Behrend in the quarterfinals on Friday at 8 p.m. The win is the first ECAC Tournament victory in SUNY Canton history as the Roos improve to 20-8 having won 10 straight and 15 of their last 16.

Pine Manor (16-10) scored the first seven points of the contest and jumped out to an early 13-2 lead 4:10 in. The Roos responded with a 16-7 spurt over the next four minutes to trim the deficit to 22-19. SUNY Canton took its first lead of the game at 36-34 with 5:05 left in the opening half after a Fletcher three-pointer from the left wing.

Canton held its largest lead of the half at 47-39 after an Annorh steal and feed to Rashad Richardson in transition with 1:30 to play. After a mini run from the Gators the Roos responded with an Ibu Smith hit from distance and a tip-in from Fletcher to extend the lead to 52-44 at halftime.

Fletcher paced the Roos with a double-double on 17 points and 11 rebounds in the opening half, while Annorh and Smith posted 11 each. Chancie Williams led Pine Manor with 13 points, while Josh Gause and Taverick Roberson netted 10 each. The Roos shot 45 percent from the field, while the Gators hit 38 percent of their shots.

The Roos extended their lead to a dozen 6:25 into the second half. As the Gators continued to push and try and trim the deficit Annorh hit a big three with 5:49 left to extend the lead to 10 at 77-67. Pine Manor responded with a 5-0 run to cut the lead to five 48 seconds later.

The Gators had a chance to cut the lead to one possession on a Roberson three-point attempt but Fletcher made a great block from behind. Smith corralled the rebound and hit Annorh with an outlet pass for an easy bucket in a huge momentum swing.

The Roos were extremely accurate going 9-for-10 from the line down the stretch as they held off a late Gator comeback attempt. Chancie Williams made a three-pointer to cut the Roos lead to 86-84 with 28 seconds remaining but Annorh and Adrian Williams went 4-for-4 in the final 22 seconds to seal the 90-86 victory.

Annorh led all players with 27 points including shooting 13-for-14 from the charity stripe. Fletcher posted his seventh straight double-double and 18th of the season with 21 points and 20 rebounds. Smith and Williams chipped in with 13 points each, while Williams added nine rebounds and Rashad Richardson tallied 10 points off the bench.

"Huge win tonight for our program. To win a game in our first ever NCAA sponsored post-season tournament is a big step forward for us," Head Coach Ben Thompson said. "Thank you to Roo Nation for all the support tonight, you guys are awesome! I'm also glad that our five seniors (Laquan, Phil, Rashad, Romario and Sam) could close out their career in the Roos House with a win. This weekend will be a great experience for our guys and we look forward to competing again on Friday."

Williams paced Pine Manor with 22 points, while Gause (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Ellis Reid (10 points, 19 rebounds) both recorded double-doubles. Roberson and Rasheed Bell added 18 and 10 points, respectively.

The Roos had a big game at the foul line where they hit 38 of 46 attempts (82.6%), while the Gators were 13-for-19 (68%) from the line.