Three Double-Doubles Lead Ithaca Men Past Cortland, 84-75
Cortland, N.Y. – For the fifth consecutive game, the Ithaca men’s basketball team (3-2) placed four in double-figures, highlighted by three double-doubles, as the Bombers claimed an 84-75 non-conference victory at Cortland (2-2) on Tuesday evening.
Senior center Phil Barera (Belmont/Belmont, Mass.) led Ithaca with 33 points to tie his career high on 16-for-18 shooting. Sophomore guard Sean Rossi (Spart/Sparta, N.J.) dished out a season-high 14 assists and tallied 10 points, while sophomore forward Andrei Oztemel (Staples/Westport, Conn.) claimed his first double-double of the 2010-11 season with an even 10 point, 10 rebound performance. Junior guard Jordan Marcus (Solomon Schechter/West Orange, N.J.) scored 12 points.
The Bombers, who snapped a two-game losing skid, shot a season-best 52.4 percent.
The score bounced back-and-forth in the first frame before the visiting squad took control for good with 3:42 lingering in the half.
Ithaca used an 8-2 run to take a 36-29 lead into intermission before increasing it to 12-2 in its first two possessions of the second stint. Dominating play, Ithaca went on to lead by as many as 18 on a Barera layup at the 8:41 mark, as the Bombers shot a commanding 62.1 percent from the floor in the latter half.
The Red Dragons did manage to decrease the deficit to just seven at 2:37, but the teams would go bucket-for-bucket through the remaining minutes as Ithaca finalized all scoring on a pair of free throws by Marcus at 84-75.