MEADVILLE, Pa. - Three players scored in double figures, while the Allegheny defense limited Pitt-Titusville to just 21 percent shooting, as the Gators cruised to a 75-45 win over its Crawford County neighbor in the 2014-15 season opener at the Greg Richards '08 Memorial Tournament.

Ten different Gators scored at least two points in the victory, led by Josh Valentic with 19 points, Evan Zabriski 18, and Chris Milon 13, while the Allegheny defense limited Pitt-Titusville to just 14 field goals for the game.

Allegheny came out of the gates strong, opening up leads of 7-0, 11-2, and 16-5 over the first six minutes of play, with four different players scoring, and highlighted by three-pointers from Valentic and Zabriski.

After a Brian Holland layup put the Gators in front 20-9 with 11 minutes left in the half, Zabriski took over, connecting on a long three-pointer before slamming home an emphatic dunk to give Allegheny its largest lead of the half, 30-11, with 7:31 remaining.

Pitt-Titusville then began to chip away, eventually ending the half on a 15-6 run over the final six minutes to close the gap to 37-27 at the intermission.  Over the opening 20 minutes of play, the Gators connected on 15 of 30 attempts from the floor, while holding the Panthers to an 8-for-34 mark, including an 0-for-7 showing from behind the arc.

The Gator lead would hover between 10 and 14 points over the opening stages of the second half, before the hosts put the game away with a 23-11 run in the middle portion of the stanza.  After seven points from Valentic in a five-minute span, Evan Schweitzer connected on a long three-pointer at the 10-minute mark to give the Gators a 54-33 lead. Five minutes later, a Milon layup upped the Gator lead to 25 points at 66-41, before Zabriski's third trey of the evening made the score 69-41 with 3:09 left to play.  

Leslie Jamerson's first career basket pushed the score to 73-45 at the one-minute mark, before freshman Isaiah Henderson closed out the game's scoring with a pair of free throws with 30 seconds left to seal the 30-point victory.

Milon, who connected on six of seven attempts from the field, narrowly missed a double-double, as he grabbed nine rebounds to lead both sides.  Zabriski added seven rebounds for the Gators, who owned a 46-40 advantage on the glass.  Henderson owned an impressive line of eight points, three steals, and a highlight-reel blocked shot in just eight minutes of play.

For Pitt-Titusville,  Lloyd Wheeler scored a team-leading 19 points, while Mark Henry added nine.  Anthony Allen led the Panthers with nine rebounds and three blocked shots.

The Gators will now move to the title game of the Greg Richards '08 Memorial Tournament, and will face off against the SUNY-Canton Kangaroos in Sunday's championship tilt at 6 p.m.  The Kangaroos opened the tourney with an 80-72 victory over Fredonia, who will play Pitt-Titusville at 2 p.m. in the third-place game.

The tournament is being played in honor of 2008 Allegheny grad Greg Richards.  A four-year letterwinner on the Gator basketball team, Richards lost his battle with cancer in 2012.  All ticket proceeds for the weekend will be donated to the Jimmy V. Foundation for cancer research on behalf of Greg.  The complete schedule and results from this year's tournament, as well as links to live video and live stats, visit the Tournament Central page.