Elmira, N.Y. – Hamilton College claimed the Elmira College Tip-Off Tournament championship on Sunday afternoon with a wire-to-wire, 97-60 victory over Keystone College in the non-conference men's basketball title game.  The Continentals built an 18-point halftime advantage to pull away with the win while improving to 2-0 on the season and dropping the Giants to 1-2 on the year.
 
Mark Gilliam (Philadelphia, Pa./High School of the Future) led Keystone with 17 points and seven rebounds while Perry Belcher (Orlando, Fla./Colonial), who was named to the All-Tournament Team, tallied 12 points for the Giants in the loss.  
Hamilton built an 18-8 advantage over the opening seven and a half minutes of Sunday's championship game before Keystone pulled two within five on a layup by Belcher at the 10:58 mark.  The Continentals countered with a 25-10 run to claim a 20-point lead before holding a 45-27 lead at halftime after Terrence Palmer (Atlanta, Ga./Lakeside) netted the final field goal of the first half.
 
In the second half, the Giants whittled their deficit to 65-48 midway through the period when Bryan Williams (Los Angeles, Calif./Rialto) converted a pair of free throws, but Hamilton put the game out of reach with a 14-1 burst that put the Continentals up by 30 points with 6:21 remaining. 
 
Hamilton's Peter Hoffmann led all players with 20 points and was joined in double-figures by teammates Tim Doyle (16) and Kena Gilmour (15).  Michael Grassy pulled down a game-high eight rebounds for the Continentals, who held a 50-29 advantage on the glass while shooting 53.7 percent from the field for the game, 22.7 percent from three-point range, and 69 percent from the free throw line.
 
Devin Stricklin (Midland, Tex./Pro Vision Prep) collected a game-high four steals for Keystone, who received three takeaways from Gilliam and two apiece from Belcher and Terrence Bowman (Ewing, N.J./Ewing). 
 
The Giants connected on 31 percent of their field goal attempts on the day while going just 18.5 percent from long distance and 59.4 percent from the charity stripe.
 
Keystone will open the Colonial States Athletic Conference portion of its schedule at home on Tuesday night against Immaculata University.  Opening tip between the Giants and Mighty Macs is set for 7:00 p.m. in the Gambal Athletic Center.