Hamilton College built a double-digit lead by halftime and withstood a furious rally in the second half before the Continentals pulled away for a 72-60 non-conference win over the Elmira College Soaring Eagles at Elmira's Speidel Gymnasium on Tuesday night.

Hamilton (12-5 overall) scored 20 points off 17 Soaring Eagle turnovers and held a 30-18 advantage in bench points. The Continentals were 21 of 34 (61.8 percent) on 2-point field goal attempts. Hamilton is back on the road again for a NESCAC game at Amherst College on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 3 p.m.

Elmira (1-15) made half of their 10 3-point attempts but went just 3-for-7 at the free-throw line. The Soaring Eagles have three wins in 19 all-time meetings with the Continentals.

Kena Gilmour '20 led Hamilton with 18 points and three assists. Gilmour is second in the conference with 22.3 points per game. Nick Osarenren '22 contributed a career-high 12 points and added three assists and two blocked shots off the bench. Spencer Kendall '21 chipped in 11 points and two blocks, Elliott Tirbaso '22 dropped in 10 points and Patrick Mogan '23 grabbed five rebounds and blocked three shots. Sayo Denloye '20 and Eric Anderson '22 were credited with four and three steals, respectively.

Elmira's Shawn Backus led all scorers with 20 points and Rashaad Nurse added 10. Kyle Kokoskie handed out six assists and Joseph Amoddio pulled down a game-high eight boards.

The Soaring Eagles took their largest lead of five points at 15-10 and 17-12 midway through the first half. The Continentals responded with a 19-2 run that put them in the lead for good and covered nearly six minutes. Tirbaso started the spurt with two 3-pointers and Kendall and Osarenren added layups as Hamilton ran off 10 straight points. After a basket in the paint by Elmira's Quintel Clements, Osarenren passed to Kendall for a jumper. Gilmour capped the run with a jumper, fast-break layup and a 3-pointer that made it 31-19 with 2:55 left.

Gilmour found Osarenren for a basket from beyond the arc only seconds before the halftime buzzer and the Continentals went into the break with a 36-23 advantage. Gilmour scored 13 points in the opening 20 minutes.

A driving layup by Denloye with 16:48 remaining handed Hamilton its biggest lead of 15 points at 44-29. The Soaring Eagles fought back with 11 consecutive points and pulled within 44-40 with 13:33 to go. The Continentals bumped their cushion back up to nine points in the next 75 seconds, but Elmira put together an 8-1 run and trailed 52-50 with 10:49 left. An offensive rebound and putback by Mason Weir kept the Soaring Eagles within two at 54-52 with 9:36 remaining.

Hamilton's defense clamped down on Elmira and held the Soaring Eagles without a point for the next four-plus minutes. Meanwhile, the Continentals scored nine in a row and took control. The clinching run started with layups by Denloye and Tirbaso and ended on a 3-pointer and two free throws by Gilmour for a 63-52 lead with 5:25 to go. Elmira didn't get closer than eight points the rest of the way.