ALBANY, NY (www.OLDWESTBURYPANTHERS.com) -SUNY Old Westbury men's basketball team were unable to stop a hot-shooting No. 1 Sage Gators, falling 92-74 in Thursday evening's Skyline Conference Championship Tournament semifinal round from Kahl Gym in Albany, New York.  With the loss, fourth-seeded Old Westbury closes out the 2014-15 season at 13-14 while Sage improves its record to 22-4 to advance to Saturday's final against No. 2 St. Joseph's (L.I.).

Luckens Victor paced Old Westbury with his second-career double-double, racking up 16 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.  Walters poured in a team-leading 19 points while Floyd Leroy scored all 15 of his points in the second half and added 11 rebounds to register his third double-double of the season.  Dom Bostick added eight points and five rebounds off the bench while Omari Trebuse dished six assists.        

Kai Deans' 18 points led four other Gators in double-digit scoring while Andre Robinson handed out a game-high eight assists.
 
Old Westbury went to Victor early, scoring six of the Panthers' first eight points to go up 8-7 with 16:01 remaining on the first-half clock.  Jaquan Potter then checked into the game off the Panthers' bench and knocked down a three pointer to put Old Westbury up 13-9.  Following a triple by Omari Trebuse, Sage answered with a 12-1 run to take a 24-17 lead with 10:22 left.  Victor flushed home his third dunk of the game at 9:01 to make it a five-point game (26-21).  Sage replied with six unanswered points to stretch its lead to 11 points (32-21) with 7:39 remaining.  Walters' layup trimmed Old Westbury's deficit to seven points before Brett Ullman connected on a pair of triples as part of a 14-0 Gator run for a 21-point lead (46-25).  Nat Vaughan sank a pair of free throws to stop the run with 49 seconds left as Sage took a 48-27 lead into the half.  Sage connected on 21-of-28 field-goal attempts in the opening half compared to Old Westbury's 11-of-36 effort. 

Both teams played even for the opening minutes of the second half until Robinson sank a jumper with 13:24 left to extend Sage's lead to 25 (59-34).  Potter landed a pair of free throws to cut Old Westbury's deficit to 20 points (62-42) with 11:12 remaining.  Sage then used a 7-0 run from 11:00 to 9:05 to take a game-high 27-point lead.  Old Westbury pulled within 16 points, but were unable to overcome the first-half deficit. 

In the end, Old Westbury shot 23.2 percent from the field (19-82), 24 percent from three-point range (6-25) and 71.4 percent from the free-throw line (30-42) while Sage hit 55.9 percent from the floor (33-59), 30.8 percent from beyond the arc (4-13) and 51.2 percent from the charity stripe (22-43).  Old Westbury won the boards battle, 56-53, scoring 26 second-chance points off a season-high 32 offensive rebounds.  

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