Junior Trey Syroka broke the St. Lawrence University single season steals record as the men's basketball team topped Skidmore 65-55 on Friday night in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

With five steals tonight, Syroka broke Josh Sharlow's 14-year record of 65 steals in 29 games in the 2008-09 season. Syroka now has 67 steals in 23 games. This was the third five-steal game the junior from Toledo had. He also finished with a season-high 20 points to lead the Saints on both ends of the floor, while distributing six assists and grabbing six rebounds.

The Saints got off to a slow start, and the hosts outscored them 30-19 in the first half. St. Lawrence shot less than 30-percent from the floor and 0-7 from deep, while the hosts hit 37.5-percent of their shots, including four 3-pointers.

It took eight and a half minutes for the Scarlet and Brown to erase that deficit, and less than four minutes after that Aidan Macaulay hit a pair of free throws to put the Saints up 52-42. The Saints shot 53-percent in the second half, while holding the Thoroughbreds to under 30-percent, and held on to win 65-55.

"Our defense was fantastic for 40 minutes tonight," said head coach Chris Downs. "Trey Syroka broke Josh Sharlow's steals record, that's pretty good company. We need to enjoy this, but we have Union on Saturday."
 
Skidmore out-rebounded St. Lawrence 40-32, but the Saints held onto the ball better, only turning it over eight times. The hosts turned the ball over 19 times, including a dozen in the second half. In addition to Syroka's five steals, Trent Adamson and Will Engelhardt each had a pair, while Gavin Macaulay had one.

Tautvydas Kupstas scored 21 points in 40 minutes to lead Skidmore and Mark Engel scored a baker's dozen.

Miles Davis hit 4-6 shots on his was to 12 points, and Adamson scored 11 points and grabbed eight boards.

The Saints improved to 16-7 with their fifth straight win, and improve to 12-5 in the league with sole possession of second place. Skidmore falls to 10-7 in the league and 12-12 overall.

The regular season wraps up on February 18^th at 4 p.m. on the road at Union. The Saints can finish no worse than second in the league, but could improve to first if Ithaca loses to Vassar.