BOX SCORE

The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team dropped a 90-87 decision to visiting Ithaca College on Friday night on Fisher's Bobby Wanzer Court.  With the Empire 8 loss, the Cardinals fall to 9-8 on the year and 4-4 in the Conference.  Ithaca improves to 10-4, 5-1 with the road victory.

Ithaca, who led by one point at intermission, never gave its lead up.  Fisher trailed by two points at 59-57 with after a 3-pointer from Justin Plata with 11:55 left, but the Bombers, who shot 56.4% from the floor for the game, pushed their lead back up to 12 at 75-63 with 5:06 remaining.

Fisher, however, extended the game, chipping away at the lead, and pulled to with a point at 86-85 with 21 seconds left on a three-point-play from freshman Chaz Lott.    After Ithaca's Sean Rossi made two free throws to push the game to 88-85, Lott again made it a one-point margin with a lay-up with 16 seconds left.

After the Lott basket, Ithaca was able to break Fisher's press and sealed the three-point victory with a fast-break dunk in the final seconds.   Lott attempted a 3-pointer from the top of the key as the horn sounded, but shot clanked off the back of the iron.

Down 41-32, the Cardinals used a 10-2 run to end the first half and went into the locker room down just a single point to the visiting Bombers.  Thad Wier paced the first 20 minutes for his team, as he netted 12 of his 15 points in the half.

The Bombers led by as many as 11 in the half, holding a 30-19 lead with just under nine minutes to play.  However, momentum swung the Cardinals way in the remaining minutes of the stanza, but could never regain the lead.

Jason Norsen led Fisher with 23 points and 11 rebounds, his fourth double-double of the season.  Lott finished the game with a career-high 20 points, half of them coming in the final 3:24 of play. Plata finished with 10 points and four assists.

The Cardinals will return to action at 6 p.m. on Tuesday night when they travel to Alfred University to play the Saxons.  Fisher had a record-setting performance in its first meeting with the Saxons, defeating the team 85-40.  The 45-point margin was the largest victory since the Cardinals defeated Keuka College 108-57 in November of 1999.