With the win, Nazareth (18-9) earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. The Golden Flyers will find out on Monday at 9 a.m. who and when they will play next.
Fisher (16-11) has an outside-shot at an at-large bid to NCAAs, but will most likely be invited to play in the ECAC Upstate Championship. Pairings for ECACs will be announced on Monday afternoon.
Nazareth scored the final points of the game with 1:46 left on a pair of free throws. The Cardinals, who had won each of the last five Empire 8 titles, had four more possessions, but failed to score the go-head basket.
After the two free throws from Nazareth, Fisher missed a 3-pointer on its ensuing possession. Nazareth, however, turned the ball on its next possession.
Fisher’s
Matt Newman missed a layup with 30 seconds left, but senior
Isaiah Smalt grabbed the offensive rebound to retain possession.
With eight seconds left,
Mike McKeever turned the ball over, but Corey McAdam missed the front end of the one-and-one. Smalt grabbed the rebound with 4.6 seconds left, but the Cardinals had difficulty in-bounding the ball and McAdam stole the loose ball. McAdam, however, again missed the front of the one-and-one and
Justin Beigel grabbed the rebound. Beigel dribbled to just inside halftime-court and shot the ball, only to have the shot clank off the front of the iron.
Fisher led 35-34 at intermission. The Cardinals trailed early on, but used a 10-0 run and led 17-12 after a lay up from freshman
Brandon Witte with just over 11 minutes left.
Fisher led by eight with 2:44 left, but Nazareth ended the opening period with a 7-0 run and took its first lead since the opening moments on a jumper from Ryan McAdam just 20 seconds into the opening period.
Beigel led the Cardinals with 23 points, while Smalt finished with 15 points and 12 boards. Newman tallied eight points and eight rebounds.
