Dec. 18, 2012

EASTON, Pa. – Lafayette held a 23-point halftime lead and led by as many as 30 points in an 86-62 win over Arcadia on Tuesday night at Kirby Sports Center. The victory was Lafayette’s fourth straight at home as the Leopards improved to 5-8 overall and 5-2 at home.

Dan Trist and Seth Hinrichs led the Leopards in scoring with 14 points each, while Bryce Scott added 10. Lafayette used a plus-nine (33-24) rebounding advantage and shot 60.7 percent from the field, both season highs, in the 24-point win. Khalief Trawick led Arcadia (6-4) with 15 points and Aaron Lee-Webb netted 14 in the loss.

Lafayette led from the opening possession and jumped out to an early 11-2 advantage after a pair of Johnson free throws on the other side of the first media timeout. Levi Giese started the run with a straightaway three and Trist followed with a pair of baskets inside, prior to a Scott steal and score.

Arcadia quickly cut the Leopards’ deficit to 14-9 on Jose Figueroa’s fastbreak layup, but Lafayette ripped off a 14-2 stretch to extend its lead to 28-11 at the 8:28 mark. Zach Rufer netted six of his career-high eight points during the run. Rufer also registered career-highs with seven rebounds and four steals. Rufer and Alan Flannigan led the team with seven rebounds apiece.

Four points by Lee-Webb and another Figueroa basket helped Arcadia cut it to 31-22 at the six-minute mark, before Lafayette put together an 18-4 spurt to end the half. Scott’s three-pointer from the corner with five seconds left punctuated the run and gave him eight of his 10 points. The Leopards took a 23-point lead into intermission, its largest halftime lead and highest scoring output of any half this season. Lafayette also shot a season-best 65.5 percent in the first half on 19-of-29 shooting from the field.

Lafayette’s hot shooting continued in the early portion of the second half with a Joey Ptasinksi’s three, four straight from Trist and a Giese slam as the Leopards opened up a 30-point margin at 58-28. Arcadia closed the deficit to 19 points on Joseph Brown’s three with less than eight minutes to go and then cut it to 18 at the five-minute mark, but failed to get any closer as Lafayette cruised to the 86-62 final.

Lafayette returns to the road on Saturday when it takes on No. 13/16 Minnesota. Opening tip from Williams Arena is set for 7 p.m. ET and can be heard on GoLeopards.com/allaccess.

Game Notes:

Billy Murphy scored his first career points (6) in the win.

Lafayette collected 10 steals for the fifth time this season.