Chicopee, Mass. - November 19, 2015 - The Springfield College men's basketball team dropped an 81-66 decision on the road at Elms College on Thursday evening in non-conference action.

The Pride dropped its second-straight contest to fall to 1-2 on the year, while Elms earned its first victory of the season to improve to 1-3.

Josh Downes (East Sandwich, Mass.) reached the 20-point plateau for the second time in the first three games of the season, setting a career-high with 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting.  Josh Altman (Rockport, Mass.) added 14 points and six boards off the bench, while Larry Piretra (Oakland, N.J.) registered his second-straight double double with 13 rebounds and 12 points.   The Pride managed to shoot 35.9% from the field, going 23-for-64, while allowing the Blazers to hit 45.6% of its shots (26-57), including 7-for-16 from beyond the arc.  Springfield committed 18 turnovers, which Elms turned into 26 points.

The Blazers held an early advantage over the Pride in the opening minutes. A layup from Elms junior Symon Smith (Oklahoma City, Okla.) made it a 15-11 game at the 13:40 mark, but Springfield grabbed their first lead, 16-15, after two free throws from sophomore Steven Young (Hanson, Mass.). Leading 27-26, the Blazers began to pull away with an 11-2 run, featuring five points from Elms senior Jerry Buchanon (Windsor, Conn.) to push ahead 38-28 with 1:46 remaining in the half. A three-point play from Downes in the final minute cut the Blazers advantage to 38-31 heading into halftime.

The Blazers offense stormed out of the break, opening the half on 13-4 run, powered by nine points by Buchanon, in span of two minutes to make it a 51-35 game with 18:00 on the clock. A pair of free throws from senior Kadar Lynch (Springfield, Mass.) gave the Blazers their largest lead of the contest, 60-39 with 11:22 to play. The Pride whittled away at the Elms lead, orchestrating a 26-13 run over the next nine minutes, and a pair of free throws from Downes brought Springfield within single digits, 73-65, at the 2:10 mark. The Blazers halted the Pride's efforts down the stretch, and Smith knocked down four free throws to send the Elms to the 81-66 victory.

Buchanon led all scorers with a game-high 33 points, shooting 11-of-20 from the floor and 6-of-8 from three-point range, with a game-high four steals and three rebounds. Smith netted a season-high 15 points with three rebounds, while junior Conny Ihearahu (Largo, Md.) chipped in 13 points and seven rebounds.

Springfield will play its first home game of the season on Saturday when it hosts Trinity, which enters the game ranked 12th in the nation.  Tip-off is slated for 1:00 pm.