MEADVILLE, Pa. - Behind a 33-point, 10-rebound double-double from freshman Jordan Rawls, the Gators defeated SUNY-New Paltz 72-60 on the opening night of the 2016 Greg Richards '08 Memorial Classic.

Senior Evan Zabriski added 19 points, while the Gator defense forced 19 New Paltz turnovers, limited the Hawks to just 29 percent from the field (16-for-55), and owned a 41-37 rebounding advantage.

Both teams got off to a sluggish start, with Zabriski's lay up five minutes into play marking the game's first field goal. The bucket kickstarted a 9-2 Gator run, which included a three-pointer from Rawls and a driving lay up from Sean Dougherty, before Zabriski went coast-to-coast with a two-handed dunk after a steal to push the Gator lead to 10-4 with 12:30 left in the opening half.

The Hawks countered with points on their next two possessions, before Zach Shedd's dunk off of a feed from Zack Pateras put the Gators up 12-8.  New Paltz again answered back, using three-pointers on back-to-back trips by Nick Paquette to take an 18-17 lead with just inside six minutes remaining.

The teams would continue to trade buckets over the next four minutes, with Paquette's third trey of the half tying the game at 23 with 1:35 to go, before Allegheny seized momentum heading into the intermission.  With 1:10 left Conor Macomber put the Gators back up by two on a layup, and after a New Paltz turnover, Rawls scored in the paint with 46 seconds left.  Allegheny forced another scoreless New Paltz possession, and with time running down, Macomber beat the buzzer with a jumper from the elbow to give the Gators a 29-23 halftime lead.

Over the opening 20 minutes, the Gator defense limited New Paltz to just six field goals on 24 attempts, including a 3-for-10 mark on two-point attempts.  Conversely, the Gators recovered from a slow start, shooting 44 percent (11-for-25), with Rawls going 5-for-7 from the field to score 15 points in 17 minutes of first half action.

Paquette buried a trey on New Paltz's first trip of the second half to cut the Gator advantage to three, but the Gators' Jamison Nee countered with five points in a 40-second span to push the Allegheny lead back up to 34-26.  The Gators' lead would hover between four and seven points over the next six minutes, before New Paltz used a pair of three-pointers to embark on an 9-2 run and pull to within one, 41-40, with 11:37 remaining in regulation.

Four points from Zabriski in a 14-second pan pushed the Gator lead to 48-42 with 9:18 left, but the Hawks answered right back to make it a two-point game, 50-48, on a layup by Andrew Seniuk 90 seconds later.  

Allegheny then used a decisive run to pull away for good.  A Rawls layup with 8:01 left made the score 50-46, before Zabriski scored four more unanswered points in a 50-second span to up the lead to 56-48.  With 5:43 left, another Rawls bucket in the paint gave the Gators a 10-point lead, 58-48, and New Paltz was unable to counter, as the Gator lead would not shrink below seven for the remainder of the contest.  Zabriski's fourth fast-break dunk of the night with a minute remaining marked the final exclamation point, sealing the 12-point win.

The Gators shot a stellar 54 percent from the field over the final 20 minutes (17-for-32), with six different players finding the scoresheet in the second half.  Rawls went 8-for-11 for 18 points in the second half, while Zabriski went 6-for-10 to score 15 second-half markers.

Antonio Frisina led both sides with seven assists, while Nee was the Gators' second-leading rebounder, finishing with six boards.  

Rawls' 33 points were the most in a single game for a Gator since Devone McLeod bucketed 34 in a Feb. 12, 2013 victory at Wabash, while it was Allegheny's first 30-plus point game since McLeod scored 31 at Wittenberg on Feb. 2, 2013. 

New Paltz (0-2) was led on the scoresheet by Paquette, who scored 23 points on the strength of seven three-pointers.  Dylan Balducci added 10 points, while Kevin Coyle and James Saunders tied for the Hawks' lead with seven rebounds apiece.

The Gators will now look to move to 3-0 on the season when they close out the 2016 Greg Richards '08 Classic on Saturday with a 5 p.m. tilt against Earlham.