The Muhlenberg men's basketball led from start to finish and sailed past Alfred, 73-49, in the championship game of Albright's DoubleTree Holiday Tournament.

The tournament championship is the first for the Mules (7-4) on the road since the 2011-12 season, when they came home from the Gallaudet Holiday Tournament with a trophy.

Senior Giovanni Rubino was named tournament MVP after a spectacular final game in which he flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 26 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds. Rubino was 10-of-14 from the field, including 6-of-8 from three-point range. The 26 points moved Rubino into 12th place on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,350 points. 

Sophomore Peter Stanton-Shepherd and freshman Drew Buck earned spots on the all-tournament team. Stanton-Shepherd netted a career-high 22 points in the championship game, going 10-of-12 from the field, while Buck contributed 12 points. 

A day after struggling with their shooting in the opening round against Scranton, the Mules shot better than 57 percent in both halves. 

After Muhlenberg won the opening tip, Stanton-Shepherd hit a pullup jumper in the lane just 19 seconds into the game. Rubino followed with consecutive threes to make it 8-0, and the Saxons (4-6) never caught up.

The Mules ran their lead to double digits for the first time, at 23-12, on a driving layup by sophomore Elias Sherman-Murphy with 8:43 left in the half, and a buzzer-beating jumper by freshman Arinze Achufusi made it 32-24 at halftime.

Alfred scored the first two points of the second half, but Muhlenberg responded with a 15-3 run, capped by back-to-back threes by Stanton-Shepherd and Rubino, to turn the game into a runaway.

Muhlenberg was solid on defense for the second straight day, holding the Saxons to 30.5-percent shooting. Following a 48-45 win against Scranton the day before, it marked the first time the Mules held opponents under 50 points in consecutive wins since the 1996-97 season.