MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – The Gallaudet University men's basketball team defeated Morrisville State College 80-69 in their opening matchup of the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) tournament on Friday night. The quarterfinal victory over the Mustangs (12-13) means the fourth-seeded Bison (17-9) have to win one more game to earn the opportunity to play for the conference championship on Sunday afternoon. This is Gallaudet's first year in the NEAC. The 17 victories is a new program record for most wins in a season for the Bison dating back over 110 years of Gallaudet basketball.

The Buff and Blue were led by junior guard Brandon McMillan (Fredrick, Md.), who dropped 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 33 minutes of play, and sophomore forward Danny Kelly (Strongsville, Ohio), who had a similar line of 19 points and seven rebounds in six fewer minutes. The tandem shot nearly 64 percent from the floor tonight, sinking 14-of-22 shots. Kelly also made eight of his 11 free throw attempts on the night. Two other Bison hit double figures, as junior guard Tony Tatum (Gardendale, Ala.) netted 14 points six rebounds, six assists and four steals, while junior forward Layton Seeber (Champaign, Ill.) had 12 points, six assists and five blocks. The pair played all but one minute of the game.

Morrisville had two prolific scorers in Wayne Turner and Brandon Hanks who both racked up 18 points in the loss. Turner also added six assists, five rebounds and five steals on the night. Bryan Eddy had 12 points and seven rebounds, making him the only other Mustang with more than six points or four rebounds.

Gallaudet led 43-30 at the half, and finished strong to earn the victory. The Bison shot 71 percent on 31 attempts from the charity stripe, compared to 57.1 percent on 14 tries for Morrisville. The Mustangs were called for 24 fouls in the game, 11 more than Gallaudet. Though the teams were fairly even in rebounding, steals and turnovers, the Bison shot nearly 14 percent better than their opponent from the floor and more than 20 percent better from behind the 3-point line.

Gallaudet's next game is against tournament host and No. 1 seed Penn State-Harrisburg tomorrow (Saturday, February 26) at 4 p.m. Should the Bison win that game, they will play the winner of Saturday's 2 p.m. semifinal game between No. 2 SUNYIT (14-10) and No. 3 Wells College (15-11) in the championship on Sunday.