DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—The Mount Union men's basketball team defeated Alfred (N.Y.) 84-66 Saturday afternoon at the Land of Magic Classic at ICI Center.

Mount Union was led by sophomores Collen Gurley (Akron / Hoban) who scored 15 points and Mario Caywood (Streetsboro / Benedictine) with a season-high 14 points as the Purple Raiders have now won five straight games and stand at 7-2 on the season.

Two other Raiders scored in double figures as freshman Chris Painter Jr. (Akron / St. Vincent-St. Mary) had 11 points and sophomore Braeden Poole (McDonald) had 10 points.

Sam Dagon had a game-high 19 in the loss for Alfred (4-4).

Both teams traded the lead early and with the score tied at 7-7, Gurley hit a layup that started a 21-7 Mount Union run and gave the Raiders a 28-14 with just over seven minutes left in the half. Alfred rallied but the Raiders kept the lead at 41-32 at halftime.

Alfred closed to within eight points on three different times in the second half, the last of those was 52-44 with 14:59 to play. Caywood then scored the next seven points for the Raiders and pushed the lead back out to 13 points, 59-46 with 12:31 to play. Mount Union would then put the game away with a 22-9 surge to lead 81-55 with 4:53 to play.

Mount Union finishes its two-game trip with a game against Union (N.Y.) tomorrow Sunday, December 29 at 6 p.m. in Daytona Beach, Fla.