Albany, NY - A new men's basketball season kicked off Wednesday night in Albany. With a lot of new faces, and a full roster, the Panthers were ready to start off the season strong. This season started taking on the SUNY ESF Mighty Oaks. In their home opener, the Panthers came away with the win as the final horn sounded. 

The energy was in the building as the Panthers started their new season in the Albert M. White Gymnasium. With the crowd behind the team, and the eruptions coming after every bucket, you could feel this season was going to be pretty special. This game was back and forth for all forty minutes as neither team took a double digit lead at any point in the game. It was a very competitive basketball game between two USCAA schools. The Panthers started off a little slow from the three, only shooting twenty percent, but made up for it inside the arc shooting forty percent. The biggest challenge for the Panthers in the first half was the foul calls, as the Panthers only shot from the free throw line a total of two times the whole first half while the Oaks shot from the line twelve times.  Although the Panthers were playing very good defense, they were just getting called for every foul in the first half. Despite the foul issues, the Panthers went into the half down 49-40. The first half saw the Panthers led by Sophomore Brett Richards (Kinderhook, NY) with a 10 point and 8 rebound first half. The Panthers also got 14 points on 2 threes, and 2 and ones by Freshman Tristan Lisbony (Friendwood, TX) making his college debut.  

The Panthers came out in the second half with very impressive defense, as they were able to hold the Oaks to zero percent from the three. The Panthers also held the Oaks to just thirty percent shooting as a whole in the second half. On top of their stellar defense in the half, the Panthers were able to put together a strong offensive performance. The Panthers shot forty percent from the three and sixty five percent as a whole in the second half. The momentum shifted in the Panthers directions and they took the lead with just under six minutes to go and never looked back. The Panthers saw Freshman Michael Leak (Delanson, NY) come up with two big steals near the end of the game that help the Panthers grow and secure the win. Leak would go on to finish with 8 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds as well. Richards finished with 21 points and 17 rebounds, with the 17 tying himself for tenth in the record books. Lisbony led the Panthers in scoring finishing with 24 points. The Panthers ended up winning the first game of the season 91-83. 

Other Panthers Statlines:
Jalon Muñoz (Helotes, TX) 13 points, 3 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 steals
Abe Pogue (Oradell, NJ) 9 points, 3 assists, 8 rebounds
Clarence Claiborne Jr. (Petersburg, VA) 6 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals
Bryce Hancock (Cohoes, NY) 4 points, 6 rebounds

After the game, head coach Robert Coleman was asked his feelings on getting the first win of the season in the first game. His response was, "A lot better than getting your first loss of the regular season. I think we have a lot of growing to do, we are very young. We have a good core group of 6 guys from last year. We are still young though, they are only sophomores and the rest are freshmen. A lot of times during the preseason or even this game we get into a hole...that's because we are young. We end up digging ourselves out of those holes, but then we give up the lead because we are young." With his team being on the younger side, Coleman was asked his thoughts on how he think the team will perform this year. He responded saying, "Not to sound redundant but I think we are going to perform young. I don't think we will lack excitement, I will tell you that much. People that come out and see us with get frustrated with us, myself included and then they will cheer us on sometimes because we have an excited brand of basketball. You never know what you will get when you watch us play, and that is the best prognostication I can give."

After securing his 18th career double double, Brett Richards was asked his thoughts on picking up right where he left off last year and getting another double double. His response was, "It feels really good, especially since last year it felt the double double just came with playing 40 minutes a game because we only had 5 guys. This year we have 15 guys, and the 10 that came played very efficiently and distributed very well so it feels really good." He was then asked as a leader on this team to touch on how the Freshmen debuts were. He responded saying, "They definitely were a little nervous in the beginning but once they got very comfortable on the court they were very good. Tristan came in and probably had 20 plus points, he had 3 and ones, a couple threes. Mike played very well defensively, and got a couple big steals. Alex had a couple big buckets at the end...all the freshmen that got in tonight played very well." 

The Panthers will have practice on Thursday before heading to Hudson, NY on Friday to take on Columbia Greene and see if they can pick up their first road win of the year.

How to follow the Panthers: For the latest information on ACPHS athletics, visit acphspanthers.com or check out the ACPHS athletics social media platforms on Instagram @ACPHSPanthers or Twitter @ACPHSAthletics.