The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team dropped an 85-71 decision to visiting Ithaca College on Friday night at Fisher's Bobby Wanzer Court. With the loss, Fisher falls to 12-11 overall and 8-6 in the Empire 8, while Ithaca improves to 16-5, 9-3.
Ithaca's Sean Rossi scored the final five points of the first half to give the Bombers a 44-36 lead at intermission.
Both teams shot the ball extremely well in the opening 20 minutes. Ithaca shot 56.7% from the floor in the first half, while Fisher was 14-for-24 (58.3%). The Cardinals, however, made eight turnovers, while Ithaca committed just two.
The Bombers opened the second half with another 5-0 spurt, pushing their lead to 49-36. Ithaca led by 18 points at 66-48 with just under 12 minutes left on a jumper from Phil Barera, but Fisher came storming back.
The Cardinals used an 11-0 run to make it 66-59 with 8:35 left on
Zachary Messinger's layup.
Ithaca, however, outscored Fisher 13-4 over the next six minutes to pull away.
Ithaca shot 51.6% from the floor in the second half, while Fisher was 13-for-35 (37.1%), including just 1-for-12 from 3-point range.
Six players finished in double figures for Ithaca with Andrei Oztemel leading the way with 21.
Fisher will return to action at 2 p.m. on Saturday and will host Utica College.
