Utica’s men’s basketball season came to a close on Friday, March 7 after a 79-57 loss to Montclair State University during the first round of NCAA Division III Tournament.

The Pioneers started their season in winning fashion against Lehman College with a 4-point victory in the Harold J. Brodie Tournament that took place at RIT. 

After beating RIT in the second game of the tournament and a hot start to the season, Utica started the season at 6-2. However things began to change over winter break, where the Pioneers went 1-4 in the 5 game stretch.

It was around this time where head coach Sean Coffey made some changes to the lineup, increasing the playing time of freshmen Isaiah Smith and Jordan Cain and replacing Seidina Doukoure in the starting lineup with Liam Teague. 

Utica finished the season on fire, going 11-1 in their final 12 games including a 7-game winning streak right before the start of the Empire 8 Tournament. It was during this stretch when Dayion Thompson started a hot streak.

Thompson, a junior guard from Beacon, New York, had his sophomore campaign cut short with a torn ACL. Prior to his injury, he started all 16 of the games he appeared in and averaged 13.6 points per game. In the second half of this season, Thompson played the best basketball of his collegiate career earning an Empire 8 Player of the Week award.

That stretch was capitalized on Jan. 24 against Hartwick College when Thompson scored a career high of 34 points and drilled the game winning three point shot. Thompson would go onto average a career high of 15.6 points per game which led the team.

Another memorable moment was when the Pioneers played their Senior Day game against Russell Sage College where seniors Griffin Barasa, Neruda Perdomo and Hagen Foley, along with fifth-year Devon Flynn and graduate students Levi Spina and Damien Call.

The game was especially memorable for Call who scored his 1,000th point as a Pioneer in the contest. Call, a member of the Pioneers since the 2020-2021 season, averaged 13.9 points per game this season and led the team in assists and rebounds. Call became the 16th player all time to reach this mark for Utica with the most recent being Justice Brantley who reached the mark last season.

Prior to the start of the Empire 8 Tournament, coach Sean Coffey made another adjustment, inserting Devon Flynn and Jordan Cain into the starting lineup in place of Levi Spina and Liam Teague. 

The Pioneers began the Empire 8 Tournament at home against Houghton University, who had one of the best seasons in program history. Utica took care of business, winning by a score of 80-68 where they had success from the free throw line shooting 22/29. Isaiah Smith had a huge role in this game with a career high of 14 points.

In the second round, Utica faced off against Nazareth University where they came away with a 6 point victory against a very good basketball team. It was a career day for Devon Flynn, Jordan Cain and Liam Teague who all scored their career high in points during this contest. 

The final game of the Empire 8 Tournament came down to a cross-town affair against the SUNY Poly Wildcats where brothers Isaiah and Elijah Smith faced off against each other. Utica prevailed for a 89-76 victory to win the Empire 8 for the second consecutive season, marking the first time that happened in program history. 

While the NCAA loss was a sour end to the season, it was yet another successful one for Coffey and the Pioneers. Though losing the likes of Call, Foley and Flynn will be tough for the Pioneers, the emergence of players like Smith and Cain, a new class and the transfer portal should propel Utica into another successful 2025-2026 season.