Men's Basketball | 12/1/2008 10:14:59 PM

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ALFRED, NY - Senior center Mark Carson (Voorheesville, NY/Voorheesville) (Voorheesville, NY/Voorheesville) recorded his second straight double-double, scoring 26 points to go along with 12 rebounds to lead the RIT men's basketball team (2-1, 1-0 Empire 8) to a 56-52 win over Alfred University (2-4, 0-1 Empire 8) in the Empire 8 opener for both teams on Monday evening.

Carson shot 10-for-13 from the field and had five offensive rebounds and three blocks.   His offensive rebound and put-back of a missed free-throw by Adam Sweet (Weedsport, NY/Weedsport) (Weedsport, NY/Weedsport) put RIT up five, 55-50 with 27 seconds left.

Josh Parker scored with 15 seconds left to cut the RIT lead to 55-52.  Sophomore guard Nate Korinchak (Strongsville, OH/Strongsville) (Strongsville, OH/Strongsville) hit a free-throw with five seconds left to put the game away.

Sweet added 12 points and added a pair of 3-pointers for RIT.  Kornichak snagged a career-best 10 boards.  Freshman Dan O'Brien (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta) chipped in with six rebounds and three assists in 14 minutes.

RIT trailed just once at 3-2 and led 27-23 at halftime.  The Tigers opened the game on a 13-5 run and led by as much as 10 at 41-31 with 14:32 left in the second half.

RIT shot 48 percent from the field (21-for-44) and out-rebounded Alfred, 41-25.  The Tigers turned the ball over 21 times to Alfred's 14.

Jared Patt led Alfred with 14 points.  Gary Kwiecien added 12 points, while Carl Embury had 10 for the Saxons, who shot 34 percent from the field.  Alfred was just 8-of-35 (23 percent) from 3-point range.

The Tigers return to action on Wednesday, as they travel to play University of Rochester at the Alexander Palestra.  Tip-off is at 7 p.m.