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POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. ‘ Dennis Young scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Marist College to a 72-65 win over Â鶹¾«Æ· Friday night in the opening round of the Pepsi-Marist Classic.
Â鶹¾«Æ· (0-1) will meet Eastern Michigan in Saturday night’s consolation game at 5 p.m. Vermont defeated Eastern Michigan 71-64 in the first game of the doubleheader.
Senior guard , who scored a career-high 25 points, and junior guard with 14 points and eight rebounds led Â鶹¾«Æ·.
Also in double figures for Marist were Nick Eppehimer and Brandon Ellerbee with 15 points apiece. Eppehimer finished with a double-double adding 10 rebounds.
Â鶹¾«Æ· had a three-point lead, 12-9, with 10:04 remaining in the first half, before the Red Foxes came back to take a 15-14 lead on Ellerbee’s jumper. Marist went ahead by as many as eight points before settling for a 28-25 halftime lead.
In the second half, Marist extended its advantage to seven points on two occasions in the first four minutes, but Â鶹¾«Æ· hung tough battling back to take a 44-43 lead with 9:21 remaining.
The Raiders led 54-53 with 5:40 remaining before Marist scored six straight points on Eppehimer’s three-point play and Ellerbee’s 3-point shot. The Red Foxes never trailed after that run. The closest Â鶹¾«Æ· would come was 63-61 with 1:29 remaining.
had seven points and seven rebounds for the Raiders while added eight points and seven boards.
GAME NOTES: Â鶹¾«Æ· played without the services of , who suffered a sprained ankle in Thursday’s practice. He is listed as day-to-day.