Box Score

The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team remained flawless in Empire 8 play with a 70-61 win over host Utica College on Friday night.  The Cardinals are now 3-0 in league play, and improve to 8-4 overall.  The game was also the third Conference matchup for the Pioneers who fall to 1-2 in the E8 and 3-8 on the season.

The Cardinals took control of the game on Justin Plata's three-pointer at the 7:16 mark of the first half, and from there, the team would never trail.  Fisher entered the locker room with a 42-37 lead after Adam Ambielli netted a free throw with zeros on the clock.

Fisher kept control of the game in the second half and eventually broke out to its largest lead of the game, up by 14 points with 14:21 left in the game and leading 57-43.  The Pioneers rallied in the remaining minutes, cutting the lead to just three points on two separate occasions, but the road team was able to hold them off.

The scoring was balanced throughout for the Fisher squad, with four players scoring in double digits and another six contributing to the team's total.  Optimystik Kinard led Fisher with 13 points, followed by Thad Wier's 12 and Chaz Lott's 11 points.  Lott also had a team-high four assists.  The senior Plata scored 10 points, while classmate Jason Norsen added to his nation-leading block average with five swatted shots.

The Cardinals will close out their back-to-back Empire 8 weekend on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. when they face the Ithaca College Bombers.