Ithaca and Hartwick Stay at 1st and 8th in East Region
The NCAA released its regional basketball rankings on Wednesday with Ithaca and Hartwick staying in the first and eight spots, respectively.
Five of the eight ranked teams in this week’s poll stayed in the same spot as the previous week. The second and third spots remained unchanged: Rochester (18-5) second, and SUNY New Paltz (22-3) third.
Geneseo (19-6) jumped two spots from sixth to fourth. Vassar (21-4) stayed in the fifth slot. Oswego (17-8) moved from seventh to sixth.
St. Lawrence (19-6), with two losses last weekend, suffered a big dip from fourth to seventh.
Ithaca, who has won 10 straight, is off to its best start in school history with a 23-2 record. The Bombers are one win shy of tying the single-season school record of 24 wins set in 2011-12.
The Bombers will return to action on Friday, Feb. 22 at second-seeded Hartwick. Ithaca is the top seed in the Empire 8 Championship Tournament and will play the fourth-seeded St. John Fisher Cardinals at 6 p.m.
Hartwick will play third-seeded Stevens Institute of Technology Friday night at 8 p.m. The championship is Saturday at 3 p.m.
The winner of Empire 8 Tournament earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.