POTSDAM, N.Y. – The Villa Maria College men's basketball team began their season with a road game against Clarkson University. After a long off-season since last playing a game, the Vikings stumbled out of the gate to start the year. Villa lost to the Golden Knights 101-80. Their record moves to 0-1, while Clarkson shifts to 1-1 after securing their first win of their campaign.
 
Juwan Beale and Kevin Goode Jr. hit back-to-back layups to put the team up 4-0 to start the battle. The opposition answered with five straight points to take their first lead of the game. Villa was unable to take advantage of some opportunities and fell behind 35-17 with ten minutes to play in the first half. They battled back with an 11-0 run that started with a four-point play by Jeriah Williams. Beale followed up two free-throw makes with a three-point play which cut the deficit to 45-33 with 3:03 to play. Another Beale bucket saw the Golden Knights lead fall to single digits with a 1:40 on the clock, and at the final horn the score was 50-37 in favor of the Knights. 
 
The second half started out sluggish for the Vikings, falling behind by as many as 21 points at the 16:06 mark. They put it together in sports cutting the deficit to 16 multiple times on scores by Tim Payne, Beale and Trent Cordone. Unfortunately, that is as close as it got as Clarkson was able to answer back every run with one of their own. As the dust settled, Villa fell by a score of 101-80. 
 
Beale led the way in scoring with 21 points on 6-for-11 from the field and 9-for-9 from the charity stripe. Cordone, Goode Jr., and Williams all scored 12 points. Cordone contribute six rebounds and three assists, while Goode Jr. contributed three assists and Williams grabbed four rebounds. Master Radford scored 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting from the field, while falling a rebound shy of a double-double. 
 
The Vikings will have their home opener on Saturday, Jan. 30 as they host Bryant and Stratton-Albany for a 3 p.m. matchup. 
 
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