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The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team routed Hartwick College 82-54 in a come from behind Empire 8 win on Friday night in Oneonta. With the win, the Cardinals improved to 9-5 overall and 4-1 in the conference while the Hawks fell to 7-6, 0-3.

At 10:49 left in the opening period, Hartwick hit a free throw to extend its lead to 12 at 20-8. The Cardinals then outscored the Hawks 27-7 over the final 10 minutes of the first half to take a 35-27 lead into the break.

Tyler Hart led Fisher during the stretch, as the freshman was part of the surge to close the deficit that quickly turned to a positive margin.

The guard scored all 10 of his first half points in between 8:46 and 6:33 of the stanza. He made two 3-pointers and two layups while also collecting two boards in that 2:19 duration. Hart's final layup of the half capped a 14-2 run for the Cardinals and knotted the game at 22-22 with 6:33 remaining.

Adam Ambielli finished the half in red-hot fashion, hitting two 3-pointers in a :37 span with under two minutes to play, putting the Cardinals up eight at the intermission, their largest lead of the game.

Fisher opened the second half in much of the same fashion, with Jason Norsen rejecting a shot and Optimystik Kinard draining a three to set the mood for the rest of the game. The Cardinals would get their lead up to 35 with 3:15 remaining in the game.

Justin Plata led the way with 17 points, as he was one of four Fisher players to finish with double digits in scoring. Hart finished with 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the floor and a perfect 2-for-2 from 3-point range. Norsen finished with 11 points, five boards and two blocks while Ambielli closed out with 10 points. Ryan Dalton, despite staying off the scoreboard, led the Cardinals with seven boards.

Nine different players scored for Fisher in the contest.

The Cardinals will return to action at 4 p.m. on Saturday as they travel to Hoboken, NJ for a matchup with Empire 8 foe Stevens Institute of Technology.