CU Men's Basketball Preview - North Country Invitational (11/18-19)

Two teams will hit the road for a long trip and another will cross a modest river to arrive at Alumni Gymnasium as the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team will host the annual North Country Invitational this weekend.

The Golden Knights will face St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) at 8:00 pm on Friday, preceded by Gordon College taking on SUNY Potsdam at 6:00 pm. The winners of the two games will play at 4:00 pm on Saturday, with the consolation game taking place two hours earlier at 2:00 pm.

The Golden Knights were upended in their season-debut on Tuesday against Plattsburgh State, 84-68. Derek Hart missed just one shot in nine attempts for 20 points and also grabbed seven rebounds. Conrad Zampier scored 12 while Drew Zlogar was just a point shy of a double-double with nine points and 10 boards.

St. Joseph's is the only team coming to Potsdam that has yet to play a game this season, so the Bears (15-13 in 2015-16) will be a bit of an unknown commodity, especially after losing four starters from last year's team that contributed 69.9% of the squad's points. The top returning scorer for the Bears is Alec Willis at 8.3 points per game. He did lead the team in 3-pointers in 2015-16, making 66 long range shots at a 39.3% clip. Christian Giles also tossed in 4.2 points per game for St. Joseph's.

SUNY Potsdam suffered through a 1-24 season in 2015-16 and lost their season-opener to St. Lawrence, but there were plenty of positives for the Bears to take away from their first game. Dropping an 88-84 decision, it was Potsdam's highest point total since January 31, 2014, a stretch of 58 games. Nosa Onabar is the team's top returning scorer as he averaged 9.4 ppg last season and easily topped that figure with 27 points against the Saints on Tuesday. Three other returning players averaged better than seven points per game with Dante Langley (8.7 ppg, 4.0 rpg), Josh Blagrove (8.4 ppg) and Serigne Kane (7.5 ppg, 6.2 rpg) all expected to contribute again.

Gordon College posted a 12-14 record last year and started the season on the right foot with a convincing victory in their season-opener earlier this week. Garrison Duvivier, who had 23 points and nine rebounds in the opener, was just shy of averaging a double-double last year for the Fighting Scots, producing 16.2 points and 9.9 rebounds per game with a 50.3% rate from the floor. Sam Johnson had a huge game in the opener with 17 points and 22 boards, and he averaged 12.7 points and 11.3 rebounds per game in 2015-16. Eric Demers, Noah Szilagyi and Jake Haar each hit more than 40 3-pointers last year for the Fighting Scots.

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Players Mentioned

#42 Derek Hart: F; 6' 7"; Senior

#23 Conrad Zampier: G; 6' 1"; Senior

#21 Drew Zlogar: F; 6' 6"; Senior

Players Mentioned

#42 Derek Hart
: 6' 7"; Senior
: F

#23 Conrad Zampier
: 6' 1"; Senior
: G

#21 Drew Zlogar
: 6' 6"; Senior
: F

Scoreboard

Players Mentioned

#42 Derek Hart

#23 Conrad Zampier

#21 Drew Zlogar

Players Mentioned

#42 Derek Hart

#23 Conrad Zampier

#21 Drew Zlogar