The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team earned its first Empire 8 Conference victory with a 72-60 win over host Utica College. With the win the Cardinals are now 8-5 on the year with a 1-1 mark in conference.

The Cardinals led most of the way the a true defensive effort, as they were without leading scorer Jason Norsen (who left Friday night's game with a shoulder injury against Ithaca College)

The Pioneers narrowed the score to 48-46 with 9:06 remaining in the game but, after a timeout by head coach Rob Kornaker, the Cardinals responded with a run, outscoring Utica 24-12 down the stretch.

The Cardinals opened the game with a 5-0 run and headed into halftime with a 33-26 lead.

Fisher was led by senior Jordan Gettings who scored a game-high 22 points while collecting five rebounds and dispersing four assists. Freshman David Lynch had a huge first half, leading all scorers in the stanza with 11 points, finishing the game with a career-high 14. Grant Wrap, in just his third game back from an injury, had the task of stepping into Norsen's center role, doing a nice job with 11 points and three rebounds.

Optimystik Kinard had three blocked shots for Fisher along with a team-high six boards and seven points. Justin Plata filled the stat sheet with 10 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Fisher will wait six days for another Empire 8 back-to-back weekend, hosting Elmira College at 8 p.m. on Friday before facing Alfred University on Saturday.