Final Second Free Throws Lift Bombers to ECAC Win
ITHACA, N.Y. – Marc Chasin knocked down a pair of free throws with one second left on the clock to lift the fourth-seeded Ithaca College men's basketball team to a 95-94 win over fifth-seeded Medgar Evers College in the quarterfinal round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship on Wednesday night inside Ben Light Gymnasium. With the win, Ithaca climbs to 14-12 overall while the Cougars end their 2015-16 campaign at 13-14.
Ithaca will now face top-seeded Rutgers-Newark at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday in the semifinals. The game will be held inside the Golden Dome Arena in Newark, N.J.
After a back-and-forth first half of play that featured seven ties and 14 lead changes, the Bombers found themselves trailing by two points, 42-40, at intermission. The lead would grow to five points fifty seconds into the second half after a Cougar 3-pointer, but the Bombers would quickly turn the tides. Trailing 50-45, Ithaca scored seven straight points as part of an 11-2 run to build its largest lead of the game to that point, 56-52.
Medgar Evers would keep it close, matching Ithaca field-goal-for-field goal until
Joey Flanagan caught fire. The Poughkeepsie native scored 11 straight points for the Bombers including three straight 3-pointers to give the home team some breathing room, 69-63, with 10:39 left in the game.
After a Cougar triple, the Bombers' stretched their lead to 11 points courtesy of an 10-2 run which included eight unanswered points to make it 79-68, but Medgar Evers responded with a run of its own, scoring 12 of the game's next 14 points to cut the deficit to 83-80 with 3:20 to go.
Ithaca would recover, however, pushing its lead to eight points after an old-fashioned three-point play by Chasin, but three straight and-one plays by the Cougars over the next 46 seconds as part of a 10-1 burst staked Medgar Evers to its first lead since 17:52 of the second half, 94-93.
Trailing by one with time winding down, Ithaca had an opportunity to take the lead, but Chasin's lay-up sailed wide. However, on the ensuing rebound, the Cougars were whistled for traveling to give the Bombers the ball with 5.9 seconds left on the clock. Chasin caught the in-bound deep on the right block and drew a foul with 1.2 seconds before the final horn sounded. The Coral Gables, Fla. calmly walked to the line and knocked down both chances to lift Ithaca to the win.
The Bombers overcame an impressive scoring performance from Medgar Evers' Matthew Lee as the Division I transfer scored a game-high 47 points on 17-of-28 shooting. Coming into the game, Lee ranked third in Division III in scoring at 28.4 points per game.
Chasin paced the Bombers with 23 points while Flanagan finished with 20 points in the win.
Peter Ezema collected his 14th double-double of his freshman campaign with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Sam Bevan notched a double-double as well with 16 points and a game-high 10 assists.
Carroll Rich finished with 10 points.
As a team, Ithaca knocked down nine 3-point field goals and shot 14-of-17 from the charity stripe.