Second Half Rallies Prove Successful

2/14/2014 9:24:00 PM

St. John FIsher 67, Nazareth 65 (Box Score)
The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team used a 14-2 run late in the game and held on in the closing moments for a 67-65 win over visiting Nazareth College Friday night.

The Cardinals trailed 32-28 at the half and took their first lead since the opening moments on a layup from Chaz Lott with 15:23 left, giving the Cardinals a 41-40 advantage.

Nazareth quickly regained the lead and led by as many as five points before Fisher rallied in the final 10 minutes.  

The Golden Flyers led 55-52 with 8:15 left, but Fisher took the lead for good on a driving layup from Chaz Lott just over a minute later.  A 3-pointer from the top of the key from Adam Ambielli pushed Fisher's lead to 59-55 with just over five minutes left.  Optimystik Kinard scored back-to-back buckets with just over three minutes to put Fisher up nine at 66-57, but the Golden Flyers refused to go away.

Nazareth capitalized on three consecutive turnovers by Fisher and pulled to within two points with just over 15 seconds left and possession of the ball.   Nazareth's Jack Giles drove down the right side, but Lott blocked his running layup and Keegan Ryan grabbed the rebound with 1.1 seconds left to secure the win.  


Elmira 69, Ithaca 68 (Box Score)
Trailing for the majority of tonight's game, the Elmira College men's basketball team (10-12, 5-6 Empire 8) clawed their way back to pull out a 69-68 win over host Ithaca College (6-16, 1-10 Empire 8), keeping the Soaring Eagles' postseason hopes alive. 

Tyler Dibble '15 played the hero tonight as his layup with 2.5 ticks on the clock sealed the Elmira comeback, giving EC their fifth conference win of the season, Elmira's most Empire 8 wins since the 2003-04 season.  Dibble's late heroics were a result of a pair of untimely missed free throws by Ithaca College's Joe Masino with 23 seconds to play in the game which kept Elmira within one point of the Bombers, 68-67.

Elmira's Derrick Vogel '14 grabbed the rebound on the missed free throw and would get it across half court, allowing head coach Randie Torgalski to call a timeout with 13.7 seconds on the clock.  Elmira inbounded the ball in front of their bench and on the inbound play, Ithaca's attention was fixed on Elmira's Chris Cassidy '14 who had scored six of Elmira's last seven points leading up to the inbounds play. 

On the inbound, the ball would find its way to Vogel's hands where he would swing it to Cassidy who would dish it right back to Vogel.  With the Ithaca defense focused on Cassidy, Vogel gave a hard pass fake in Cassidy's direction, allowing Dibble to break free under the basket where he received a pass from Vogel, leaving Dibble with a wide open layup to win the game. 

Elmira held the edge in the early going of the first half, taking a 15-8 lead at the 13:22 mark.  However, a 12-0 run by the Bombers would give Ithaca a 20-15 advantage with 8:25 to play in the half.  Ithaca's lead would peak at seven as the Bombers took a 31-27 lead into the break.

The Soaring Eagles opened the second half by outscoring Ithaca 10-to-6 to tie things up at 37-37 with 14:13 to play.  From that point on, the lead would change hands 12 times with the 11th time being in favor for Ithaca at the 6:42 mark, a lead they would hold until Dibble's game-winning layup with 2.5 seconds.


Alfred 116, Utica 94 (Box Score)
The Alfred University men's basketball team kept pace in its quest for an Empire 8 Conference regular season title with a 116-94 win over visiting Utica College Friday evening in the McLane Center.

AU used solid shooting and a decided rebounding advantage to move to 8-3 in Empire 8 play (17-5 overall). The Saxons held a 60-48 lead at halftime, courtesy of 48 percent (21-of-43) first-half shooting. Alfred made seven three-pointers and connected on 11 of 14 free throws, and outrebounded Utica, 27-16, in the game's first 20 minutes.

The Saxons kept it up after intermission, shooting 49 percent (22 of 45) in the second half and outrebounding the Pioneers, 31-20. For the game, Alfred shot 49 percent, made 12 three-point shots and held a 58-36 rebounding advantage while forcing 19 Utica turnovers.

 

SCHOOL	CONF	OVERALL
Stevens	9-3	15-7
Alfred	8-3	17-5
Hartwick	8-4	13-9
Nazareth	7-4	15-7
St. John Fisher	8-5	15-9
Elmira	5-6	10-12
Utica	1-11	7-15
Ithaca	1-11	6-17
Houghton	0-0	3-19
Houghton is an NCAA provisional member and is not eligible for postseason. Games against the Highlanders will not impact conference records/standings.