SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The American International College men's basketball team dropped a 65-41 Northeast-10 contest to the College of Saint Rose Sunday afternoon at Henry A. Butova Gymnasium in its final home game of 2011

The Golden Knights picked up their first win of the season, improving their record to 1-8 overall and 1-6 in the Northeast-10. The Yellow Jackets fell to 4-6 overall and 2-5 in conference play with the loss.

AIC shot just 28.8 percent (15-52) from the field in the game and turned the ball over 24 times, while Saint Rose shot 44.8 percent (26-56) from the floor and committed just 11 turnovers. The Golden Knights outscored the Yellow Jackets 28-14 in the paint and outscored AIC 20-9 off turnovers.

Like the women's game the day before, both teams got off to a slow start on the offensive end and Saint Rose held a slim 8-7 lead midway through the opening period before closing strong to take a 28-16 lead into the locker room at the break.

The Golden Knights opened the second half with a 12-2 run to push their lead to 22 six minutes into the period and led by as many as 30, 57-27, with 6:12 to go in the game.

Senior guard Rob Gutierrez (Brooklyn, N.Y.) scored a game-high 19 points with five assists, three rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots to lead Saint Rose, while sophomore guard Kareem Thomas (Queens, N.Y.) netted 13 points with five boards, four assists and three steals. Senior forward Sheldon Griffin (Pittsburgh, Pa.) scored 11 points with six boards, while sophomore center Dominykas Milka (Queens, N.Y.) added 10 points with six boards off the bench.

A total of 11 players factored in the scoring for the Yellow Jackets, none of whom reached double-figures. Sophomore guard Janek Schmidkunz (Berlin, Germany) scored nine points on 3-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc to lead AIC.

The Yellow Jackets will next travel to Dowling College Wednesday for a 7 p.m. non-conference contest, which will be their final game until after the New Year.