HAMBURG, N.Y.  – Hilbert Men's Basketball played well enough to earn an 85-74 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference victory over Alfred State College tonight as they shifted their league record back to .500 at 5-5.
 
13 Hawks made an appearance in the game with a majority of them padding the stat sheet in victory.
 
Hilbert improved to 12-7 overall and dropped the Pioneers to 3-16 overall and 2-8 in the league.
 
HIGHLIGHTS
 
Larry Morse collected his 10th double-double after connecting on 10-of-13 from the floor and outworked everyone on the glass, finishing with 11 rebounds, nine on the offensive end while chipping in six assists.
 
Shaheem Ellis was also very impressive from the field, hitting on 6-of-8 3-point attempts if not dishing to the open man for five assists.
 
Quran Briggs did a great job finding the bigs in the paint as he led the floor with seven assists, finished with eight rebounds and added 19 points, hitting all three free throw attempts.
 
Sonny Williams was a big lift off the bench.  The sophomore guard went 3-for-3 from downtown, hitting 4-of-6 from the field scoring 11 points in 20 minutes of action.
 
 HOW IT HAPPENED 

• Hilbert created a 7-point lead once Briggs drilled a 3-pointer after feeding Morse on the blocks twice.
• The Hawks built a double digit lead off an Ellis 3-pointer at 13:57 and twice extended their hold to 15 points, the last time with 5:49 remining in the half (36-21).  
• Just two minutes later, the Pioneers sliced the margin to five (38-33), forcing a Hilbert timeout.
• Ellis drilled a pair of deep hits before halftime but struggled to find the bottom of net otherwise as they headed to the locker room with a 44-39 advantage.
• Alfred State scored five quick points, knotting the game at 44-all but never took the lead.  Hilbert was able to hold off their rally thanks to Sonny Williams back-to-back makes from beyond the arc and Malachi Hartley's coast-to-coast score which preceded his 3-pointer from the baseline which jumped the Hawks back into a 63-51 lead with over ten minutes left in the game.
• Alfred State continued to drive to the rim and made things interesting late in the game.  But an Ellis 3-pointer with 1:46 remaining gave the Hawks a nine-point cushion. 

GAME NOTES
 
Alfred State's Michael Miller was flirting with a triple double as he finished the game with 21 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in defeat.
Hilbert went to the foul line only four times while the Pioneers made 12-of-17.
The Hawks dominated the glass, out-rebounding A-State 44-27
 
UP NEXT
 
Hilbert returns to the Hafner this Saturday for round-two against Carlow University February 1st with a 1pm tip.  The Hawks earned a 74-69 victory in Pittsburgh earlier this season.