PURCHASE, N.Y. – Jai Kellman led six Brooklyn College players in double figures with a game-high 20 points as the Bulldogs defeated the Manhattanville College men's basketball team, 91-74, on day one of the third annual AJ Buchanan Classic, hosted by Manhattanville at Kennedy Gym on Friday night.
 
Brooklyn (3-1) advances to tomorrow's championship game where the Bulldogs will face The Sage Colleges, which defeated New York University in Friday's first game by a 68-65 score. Manhattanville (1-3) will face NYU tomorrow in the consolation game at 2 p.m.
 
The Bulldogs had the hot hand all night long, shooting 58.0 percent (40 of 69) from the field as a team. Valon Djombalic hit all seven of his shots on the way to filling up his stat sheet with 14 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two assists, followed by Dillon Williams' 13 points, nine rebounds and three steals.
 
Manhattanville, conversely, connected at a 40.6 percent (26 of 64) clip on the evening. Junior Anthony Maestre (Bronx, N.Y./Mount St. Michael Academy) led the Valiants with 17 points and five assists, followed by classmate Juan Camacho (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/New Horizons) with 14 points. Sophomore Charles Nardone (Stony Point, N.Y./North Rockland) chipped in a career-high 12 points in 16 minutes off the bench as well.
 
The teams both started strongly, with the lead changing hands six times in the first four minutes of the contest. After a layup by senior Niko Emanuilidis (Pleasantville, N.Y./Pleasantville) made it a 15-13 game with 5:01 gone by in the half, Brooklyn made its first run with buckets from four different players to take a 23-13 lead with 13:15 left in the half.
 
Down by 13, the Valiants used a quick 7-0 run to get some energy back on the bench and in the building, with senior Wills Flynn (Miami, Fla./Westminster Christian) using a steal and score to make it a 32-26 game with 8:11 left. But Brooklyn closed the half with a 16-4 run, capped by a Djombalic layup with 17 seconds remaining that made it a 51-32 game at the break.
 
Brooklyn shot a sterling 57.1 percent (24 for 42) in the opening half. The Bulldogs boasted a 38-20 edge in points in the paint and a 17-8 difference in fast-break points, as well as a commanding 26-12 edge on the glass.
 
Manhattanville struggled to put a dent in the lead throughout the second half, as Brooklyn kept the Valiants at a safe distance.
 
In the first game of the day, Sage used a balanced scoring attack to overcome the NYU duo of Costis Gontikas and Evan Kupferberg and advance to the championship game with a 68-65 win.
 
Andre Robinson led Sage (2-0) with 14 points while Jorrdan McCray and Travis Gill chipped in 10 points apiece, as all nine Gators to see the court had at least one field goal. Melvin Ford had five points and hauled in a team-best nine rebounds as well for the Gators.
 
Gontikas had a big game for NYU with a game-high 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting and 10 rebounds, while Kupferberg was huge on the glass with 16 rebounds to go with 17 points. Ross Udine overcame a rough shooting night to finish with a game-high eight assists for the Violets as well.
 
NYU held a slight lead for the first 10 minutes of the game, but a basket by Matt LaClair gave Sage a 16-15 lead with 10:34 to go in the first half and the Gators never gave that lead up. Sage built up a nine-point lead at the half thanks to a Kai Deans tip-in just before the buzzer.
 
Sage's lead grew to as many as 13 points on two occasions in the second half, the last coming on a McCray steal and score with 3:59 gone by in the half. NYU managed to whittle down the lead and got within a single point twice in the final three minutes on free throws by Gontikas. Both times, however, Gill followed up with two key free throws to again make it a three-point game.
 
NYU had a chance to tie the game with the ball down three in the closing seconds, but Udine could not get a shot off on the final possession and Sage came away with the win.