The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team closed its 2011-12 season with a 68-62 overtime loss to its East Avenue rival Nazareth College on Bobby Wanzer Court late Saturday night.  Fisher ends the season with a 10-15 overall record and a 3-11 showing in the Empire 8 Conference, while Nazareth moves to 17-8, 10-4.

In true rivalry fashion, the game came down to the wire as Nazareth held a four-point lead at 54-50 with just under a minute to play in regulation.  The Cardinals, however, did not let up as Justin Plata cut the lead to two points with a floater with 30 seconds remaining.  Then, with 17 seconds to go, Jordan Gettings grabbed his own rebound and hit a basket to tie the game at 54s.  Nazareth would have a chance at the final shot, but the attempt failed and the game headed into overtime.

Nazareth scored the opening two points of the overtime, but Gettings had an answer yet again, this time nailing a 3-pointer to give Fisher a one-point lead.  But on their next two possessions, the Golden Flyers made consecutive 3-pointers to build a 62-57 lead in the extra period.  This time, the Cardinals were unable to rally as they fell by the six-point deficit.

After a first half that was dominated by the Cardinals, the Golden Flyers gained their first lead at the 5:51 mark of the second half on a floating jumper by Phil Scaffidi.  Nazareth pushed that lead to three points twice in the following minutes, but Fisher had answers for both.  The first came from the senior Gettings who evened it at 47s with a traditional three-point play, then Mike Cardone nailed a 3-pointer to tie it up at 50-50.

In the first, the Cardinals opened the game with six-unanswered points, and leapt to a 10-3 lead, causing the visitors to take two timeouts in the first five minutes of the game.  Justin Plata and Cardone pushed the Fisher lead to 23-7 after Plata nailed a long three with the shot clock winding down, and Cardone followed with a baseline jumper.  The Cardinals were able to hold a 33-22 lead after the first 20 minutes behind Gettings 11 points and six rebounds.

With a game-high 23 points in the contest, Gettings finishes his career at Fisher in seventh place on the school's all-time scoring list, compiling 1,226 points in his four years with the Cardinals.  Plata added 14 points and six rebounds for Fisher and Cardone recorded a career-high eight points and three steals.