Ithaca Men's Basketball Ranked Fourth in the East Region by NCAA Committee
Indianapolis, Ind. – The Ithaca men’s basketball team (18-5, 11-3 Empire 8) is ranked fourth in the NCAA East Region rankings. The Feb. 16 regional rankings are based on the same criteria used to select and rank teams for the NCAA playoffs.
Ithaca sits among the national top-20 in six team categories, with players represented in five individual categories according to the most recent NCAA Division III national summary.
Sophomore guard Sean Rossi (Sparta/Sparta, N.J.) leads the nation in assists with an average of 10.0 per game, while sitting third overall in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.48. Center Phil Barera (Belmont/Belmont, Mass.) also cracked the top-five with a second-place ranking in field-goal percentage. The senior captain has shot an average of 68.2 percent from the floor over the course of the season.
Junior guard Jordan Marcus (Solomon Schechter/West Orange, N.J.) ranks fifth with an average of 3.6 three-point field goals made per game, while sophomore forward Andrei Oztemel (Staples/Westport, Conn.) is 10th in the same category, with 3.4 per contest.
The Bombers rank second out of 402 teams with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.64 and fifth in turnovers per game having committed an average of 10.2. Ithaca ranks sixth in both three-point field goals per game and scoring offense. The Bombers have tallied 10.5 treys per contest and contributed 88.9 points per game.
Ithaca’s 49.6 percent field-goal shooting is the 10th best across the country, while its 16.7 assists per game are good for 14th.
The Bombers travel to Hartwick and Stevens Friday and Saturday, Feb. 18-19, and can clinch the conference tournament's top seed with a pair of wins.