Ithaca's Season Ends with Loss to NJCU in ECACs
NEWARK, N.J. – The fourth-seeded Ithaca College men's basketball team saw its season end on Sunday as the Bombers fell to second-seeded New Jersey City University, 87-65, in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Upstate/Metro Championship game inside the Golden Dome Arena. With the loss, Ithaca concludes its 2015-16 schedule at 15-13 while the Gothic Knights, who claimed their seventh ECAC crown in men's basketball, climbed to 21-8 with the win.
Three players tallied double-figures in scoring for the Bombers led by
Marc Chasin's 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor. The Coral Gables, Fla. native also accounted for five rebounds and two blocked shots.
Sam Bevan, who played in his final collegiate game, finished with 18 points, five boards and three assists while
Carroll Rich added 11 points and four helpers. Freshman
Peter Ezema had eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds including three on the offensive glass.
The Bombers took the lead just three seconds into the game when Rich found a cutting Chasin whose lay-up made it 2-0 in favor of the Bombers. The Gothic Knights would tie the score 21 seconds later as part of a 7-0 run to take a 7-2 lead with 2:08 gone by.
After swapping baskets on consecutive possessions, the Bombers would retake the advantage courtesy of an 8-0 run capped by a long 3-pointer from Bevan to make it 13-9, Ithaca.
Ithaca controlled the pace of play for the next seven minutes, eventually building its largest lead of the game after a pair of free throws by Ezema made it 25-18 with 7:11 left to play before the break. However, the lead would evaporate over the next three minutes of action as the Gothic Knights scored 13 of the game's next 16 points to take a 31-28 lead before a lay-up by Bevan halted New Jersey City's momentum for the moment.
The lead would change hands twice as the half wore on until the Gothic Knights broke a 34-34 tie and took the lead for good with a 3-pointer from the right side. New Jersey City would go into the locker room leading by five, 40-35.
Ithaca would find itself in a double-digit hole just five minutes into the second half as the Gothic Knights went on a 13-2 run that stretched back to the final minute of the first half to hold a 50-37 lead.
The Bombers would cut the deficit to nine points, 51-42, after Chasin finished off an old fashioned 3-point play with one of his seven made free throws, but that was as close as IC would get as the Gothic Knights proceeded to score 10 unanswered points including back-to-back three-point plays to take a 19-point lead, 61-42, with 10:42 to go.
Head coach
Jim Mullins' squad continued to battle throughout the game's final minutes, but in the end, the lead was too great to overcome as the Gothic Knights earned the win and the title, 87-65.