SYRACUSE - The University at Albany started off the game well and continued to play a solid first half.

The No. 5 team in the country showed why they are ranked that high, as the half went on.

James Southerland leads Syracuse with 14 points, while Kris Joseph added 11.

Gerardo Suero led the Great Danes with 16 first-half points, while Logan Aronhalt added 11.

UAlbany coach Will Brown talked about winning segments of the game. There is a TV timeout after every four minutes.

Below are the scores for those segments and the time that the clock was stopped.

First Media – 10-9 Cuse – 15:49
Second Media – 10-7 Cuse – 11:31
Third Media – 16-7 Cuse – 7:33
Fourth Media – 7-9 UAlbany – 3:22
Half – 8-2 Cuse

The Great Danes trailed by only nine, before the final few minutes, as the Orange ended the half on a 13-5 run.

SYRACUSE - It wasn't all that pretty in the second half, but the University at Albany earned its first victory of the season Monday evening.

Gerardo Suero scored a game-high 29 points and Logan Aronhalt added 19 points and a career-high 13 rebounds as the Great Danes defeated Brown 77-68, at the Carrier Dome, in Syracuse, in the NIT Preseason Tip-Off.

UAlbany will play either No. 5 Syracuse or Manhattan, Tuesday day evening, for a spot at Madison Square Garden.

Matt Sullivan led the Bears (1-1), with 26 points, while Sean McGonagill added 17 for the Bears.

SYRACUSE - The University at Albany men's basketball team looked pretty good in the first half, here at the NIT Season Tip-Off, at the Carrier Dome, in Syracuse.

The Great Danes shot 53.8 percent (14-26) and it was newcomer Gerardo Suero leading the way with 14 points.

UAlbany's biggest lead was 14 points and the showed they were the better team. Now, they will see if they can finish Brown off.

The Bears were led by Sean McGonagill, who had 10 points in the first 20 minutes.