The Panthers men's basketball used a balanced attack to take a 93-82 home win over Cayuga Community College Wednesday. Tompkins Cortland improves to 9-4 overall and 7-1 in the Mid-State Athletic Conference. Cayuga drops to 1-12 overall and 1-7 in the MSAC.

Cayuga scored the first bucket of the game, but the Panthers scored the next 11 straight to take an early lead. The margin grew to 23 points before the teams went to the half with the home team ahead 48-31. The visiting Spartans came out strong in the second half, using a 14-2 run to pull within five at 50-45. The Panthers responded, quickly stretching the led back to double digits, and at the midpoint of the second half, the lead was 72-55. A mini-rally for Cayuga narrowed the gap to nine points with six minutes left, but the Panthers never lost control in pulling out the win.

Ten Panthers scored, led by Javonte Long (Harlem/Clayton H.S.) with 21 points and 9 assists. Damari Johnson (Binghamton/Johnson City H.S.) netted 20 points while pulling down 5 rebounds. Bryan Viscaino (Manhattan/Monsignor Scanlon H.S.) poured in 15 points and Khai Pugh (Syracuse/Nottingham H.S.) filled up the stat sheet with 14 points, 11 assists, 9 rebounds, and 5 steals.

Looking ahead

The Panthers host Finger Lakes Community College on Saturday.