By: St. John Fisher Athletics
ONEONTA, NY – The St. John Fisher College basketball team completed the season sweep of Hartwick College on Saturday after the Cardinals held on for a 74-67 win in an Empire 8 clash inside Lambros Arena. With the win, Fisher extended its winning streak to its last three games and improved to 14-7 on the year and 9-1 in the Empire 8. The Hawks fell to 11-10, 3-7, respectively.
After a back-and-forth first half of play that ended with the score deadlocked at 33-33, both teams looked to make a push as the second half got underway. The lead, however, would change sides five times over the opening four minutes until the Hawks gained an advantage courtesy of an 8-0 run that made it 48-42 with 15:31 remaining in the game.
Offense would come at a premium over the next three minutes of play as neither team was able to score until Sean Williams cut the gap to four with a lay-up before Hartwick countered with a bucket of its own to reclaim a six-point edge.
With 10 minutes having ticked away in the second half and the Cardinals trailing, head coach Mike Grosodonia's squad dug deep and began to find a rhythm on the offensive end of the court as a jumper from junior Mark Valeriani was the beginning of an 8-0 burst by Fisher that was capped off by a 3-pointer in the corner from James Leone to push the visitors ahead, 52-50, with under nine minutes to play.
As the half wore on, Hartwick continued to battle and would tie the game at 57-57, but another 3-pointer from Valeriani halted the Hawks' momentum and sparked a 7-2 run that staked the Cardinals to a five-point cushion, 64-59.
From there, Hartwick would pull to within one, 68-67, with a pair of free throws, but the home team went cold from the floor and did not score again over the final 2:16 as the Cardinals closed out the game with six straight points including four from Matt Asenjo to seal the road win.
Senior Sammy Robinson led all players with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting to go along with four rebounds, two steals and two assists while Leone finished with 10 points and eight rebounds in the win. Williams netted 10 points and hauled down six boards of his own while Valeriani scored 11 points off the bench.
As a team, Fisher was 24-for-51 (.471) from the floor and converted 20-of-26 attempts from the free throw line. The Cardinals came away with 13 steals in the win and forced the Hawks in to 17 turnovers in all.
Fisher will go for its fourth straight victory at 2 p.m. on Sunday when it takes on the Soaring Eagles in Elmira.