Hamilton College scored 55 points in the second half and the Continentals rallied for an 88-80 NESCAC win against the Connecticut College Camels at Hamilton's Margaret Bundy Scott Field House on Friday night.

The Continentals (15-8, 3-6 NESCAC) are in a three-way tie for seventh place in the conference standings with one game left in the regular season. The top eight teams advance to the 2020 NESCAC Men's Basketball Championship, which get underway on Saturday, Feb. 22 with the quarterfinals. Hamilton hosts Trinity College (16-7, 6-3) on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. for another NESCAC contest. The Continentals will honor their three seniors at halftime.

Hamilton held a 40-30 advantage on the glass and scored 20 points off 14 Conn. College turnovers. The Continentals enjoyed a 28-11 advantage in points off the bench.

Sayo Denloye '20 led Hamilton with a career-high 18 points and added three steals. Mark Lutz '20 drained three 3-pointers and finished with 16 points, Elliott Tirbaso '22 chipped in 11 off the bench, Kena Gilmour '20 scored 10 and Spencer Kendall '21 had nine. Gilmour is second in the conference with 21.8 points per game and has 1,886 for his career. Eric Anderson '22 contributed six rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots. Nick Osarenren '22 grabbed six rebounds including four offensive boards.

Ben McPherron nailed five 3-pointers and ended up with a game-high 27 points for the Camels (4-19, 0-9). Daniel Draffan was a force down low with 21 points and Jack Zimmerman registered 11 points and four assists. Jeff Allen tallied 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

The Continentals led by as many as seven points at 23-16 and 25-18 midway through the first half. Hamilton still held a five-point edge at 28-23 with 5:35 left when Conn. College went on a 12-3 run and took a 35-31 lead with 1:43 remaining. Zimmerman and Matt Carlin started the spurt with jumpers and McPherron, Draffan, Allen and Draffan again scored in the paint. A layup by Conner Rood '23 and a free throw by Denloye were the only points for the Continentals during the Camels' surge. Conn. College went into the break with a 37-33 advantage.

Hamilton went back in front by scoring the first five points of the second half. Neither team led by more than five points for the next seven-plus minutes. An old-fashioned 3-point play by Tirbaso put the Continentals in front for good at 47-46 with 14:51 to go.

The Camels were still within three at 53-50 after Allen pulled down an offensive rebound and made the putback with 12:13 left. Hamilton broke the game open by scoring the next 12 points, and Conn. College didn't get closer than six the rest of the way.

Kendall started the clinching run by grabbing his own miss and making the layup. He added another layup 32 seconds later, got fouled, and made the free throw. Kendall is shooting 48.8 percent at the line this season but made all three of his attempts against the Camels. Vince Conn '21 knocked down a 3-pointer, Osarenren went 1-for-2 at the charity stripe, and Gilmour swished a trifecta from the left wing for a 65-50 lead with 8:49 remaining. The 15-point cushion was the largest of the night for the Continentals.