SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – "We don't like to lose at home, so we wanted to come out aggressive."

Junior Michael Sampson certainly was aggressive on Wednesday night, leading Notre Dame College with 22 points, on 9-of-9 shooting, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals. The Falcons shot 49-percent and had 38 points in the paint as they defeated Davis & Elkins College, 85-81.

NDC had control of the lead for much of the contest, but the teams traded baskets early in the first half. D&E's Sam Rolle IV started the scoring with a three pointer. On the other side of the floor, following an off balanced two-point jumper by junior Jaedon Willis, the Falcons scored six straight points in the lane.

During that stretch in the paint, junior Tyland Crawford started it off by connecting on a layup. NDC then scored their next two baskets in an identical way. Willis would steal the ball and find Sampson for a basket on the fastbreak. With 16:18 to go in the first half, Notre Dame led 8-5.

The Falcons would total 20 points in the paint in the first half and finish the game with 38. Davis & Elkins had 28 points in the paint throughout the game.

D&E came back and took a 9-8 lead, but NDC put together another run. They would rattle off 10 straight points and led 18-9 with 11:22 on the clock, following a layup by freshman Gbolahan Adio.

NDC pushed their lead to 14 points (28-14), but Davis & Elkins found a way to respond, as they would all night. The Falcons went cold, missing six consecutive shots and the Senators took advantage and made four of their next five shot attempts to cut the NDC lead to three points, 28-25.

Defense was still a major factor in the contest, as freshman John Godinez stole the ball with just under four minutes remaining in the first half and sent a pass to Willis, who scored from the beyond the perimeter. The Falcons took a 33-25 advantage.

A late 9-3 run, including four points by Willis, in the final 2:09 of the half gave NDC a comfortable 12-point lead (42-30) in the second half.

Sampson ended the half with 10 points, scoring all of them in the first 11 minutes of the game. He added five rebounds, two steals and two assists.

"I've kind of been slacking a little bit, so I just wanted to come out and have fun playing basketball," Sampson said.

"I'm really proud of Mike [Sampson]," said head coach Mark Richmond. "He's worked ultra-hard on his game, he's gotten so much better around the perimeter and making shots. I told him, 'don't forget what got you here, continue to do what you're good at.' I thought he did that tonight. I saw it a little bit toward the end of the game on Monday. But today, he did it for 40 minutes. We need that effort out of him."

Godinez stole the ball, again, early in the second half, but the Falcons missed a couple shots on the offensive end. Davis & Elkins scored nine of the first 10 points of the second stanza, and following an Evan Busby layup, the Senators trailed 43-39 at the 16:43-mark.

Crawford drove to the basket and made a layup as he was fouled. He finished the three-point play with a free throw and pumped some energy back into the Falcons.

The Senators kept the game close and, over the next five minutes, the farthest that the Falcons could push their lead was seven points. A three-pointer by Adio with 11:07 to go put NDC ahead by 10 points (60-50) and they would hold a double-digit lead for over three minutes.

A D&E turnover, followed by a layup by Sampson pushed NDC's advantage to 13 points (73-60), but the Senators did not let them cruise to victory.

"I was happy with our energy and effort," Richmond mentioned. "We came out ready to play. I thought we ran out of gas a little bit at the end, didn't close as well as I wanted to. But I thought our guys played pretty well for the most part. I was proud to hold on and get the win there, after playing pretty well for about 35 minutes."

In the final 37-seconds, the Senators outscored NDC 11-5, making three, three pointers in that span. But the Falcons made enough of their free throws to close out the game and win by four points.

"The win is huge and we have another [game] coming up on Saturday," Sampson said. "Next week, we have one and then we go to Florida, where we will play two very talented teams. We're just trying to get off to a good start before January."

Sampson added 12 points in the final 20 minutes. The only shots he missed all night were a couple of free throws, early in the second half. His 9-for-9 shooting performance from the field ties an NDC record, originally set in 2006 and then matched by Sampson, last season.

Notre Dame only outrebounded D&E by one on the offensive board, but they had seven more second chance points than the Senators (12-5). The Falcons had eight steals on the night and 19 points off turnovers, as D&E gave the ball away 19 times.

Notre Dame travels to West Virginia Wesleyan College on Dec. 11 for a 4 p.m. tipoff.