GENESEO, N.Y. - SUNY Geneseo senior forwad Gordon Lyons scored a career-high 34 points to go along with 12 rebounds for his seventh-straight double-double to lead the Knights past visiting Medaille, 80-77, in men's basketball action Monday night.

Senior guard Andy Drescher added 21 points while first-year guard Kevin Crockett totaled 10 points in the winning cause. 

"I thought we did a good job limiting (Jammal) Coleman, who came into the game averaging close to 30 points," said head coach Steve Minton. "Our biggest problem in the first half was not getting them to miss any shots as they were hitting as well as any team I've seen this year. We were resilient and battled back by halftime and had to again in the second half. We got some great production out of our bench and I thought it was appropriate that our veterans, Andy and Gordon, played so well on Veterans Night."

The Geneseo Athletic Department invited all current military members and veterans from the area to the game and honored them during a halftime ceremony thanking them for their service. Several Geneseo student-athletes were on hand to hand out special t-shirts and thank each one personally.  

A Lyons lay-up pulled Geneseo within two, 18-16, with 14:01, but the Mavericks used a 13-2 run to build a 31-18 lead at 8:11 of the first half. A Drescher lay-up capped a 7-0 Geneseo run to make it a 31-25 Geneseo deficit at 5:34, but one of five first-half three-pointers from Chris Willingham finished a 6-0 spurt to put the visitors back up, 37-25, at 4:41. The Mavericks connected on 8-of-13 three pointers in the first half.  

Trailing, 41-30, with 2:31 on the clock after another Willingham triple, Geneseo finished the half with 10-unanswered points, finished off by a Drescher three-pointer as the horn sounded, to bring the Knights within one, 41-40, at halftime.

Medaille (2-3) would take a 52-45 lead on a three-pointer by Putter Brown at the 16:25 mark of the second half, and build it up to 11, 60-49, on a long-range shot by Louie Olivieri at 14:17. Geneseo responded with a 15-3 run, including nine points by Lyons, to take its first lead since the opening minutes, 64-63, with 7:46 left in regulation.

Tied, 72-72, with 3:12 remaining, a Lyons lay-up pushed the Geneseo lead to five, 77-72, with 1:11 left.  Willingham connected on his seventh three-pointer of the evening to bring the Mavericks back within two, 77-75, but a nice baseline drive by senior guard Connor Rogers as the 35-second shot clock expired put Geneseo up four, 79-75, with 20 seconds left in the game.

A jumper by Cooper Calzonetti kept Medaille within two, 79-77, with :06 on the clock, before a fould sent Drescher to free-throw line where he sank the second of his two attempts to put the game out of reach. 

First-year point guard Charlie Zaepfel was credited with a season-high seven assists while only registering two turnovers while senior center Devon Anderson chipped in five blocked shots for the Knights. 

Geneseo is off until the New Year when they will start the semester with three-straight SUNYAC road contests at Fredonia (Jan. 6), Oneonta (Jan. 9) and New Paltz (Jan. 10).