The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College men's basketball team lost its regular season finale, 60-54, to host Stevens Institute on Saturday.

With the loss, the 16^th ranked Cardinals fall to 21-4 overall and 14-2 in Empire 8 play, while Stevens closes out the season 12-13, and 8-8 respectively.

Fisher, which had already secured the conference regular season title, will host the four-team Empire 8 Championship next week on February 27-28.  The Cardinals will square off against fourth-seeded Ithaca College at 6 p.m. on Friday, followed by Alfred University and Hartwick College at 8 p.m.  The winning teams will meet in the championship game at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

The Ducks jumped out to a quick lead, 6-1, before Fisher scored seven straight points, including five from Stefan Bock to take an 8-6 advantage.

Fisher built up its lead to 18-12 at the midway point but the Ducks used an 8-0 run to reclaim the lead at 20-18.

Stevens led by as many as seven points at 27-20 late in the half and took a 29-26 lead into the break.

The hosts built their margin to 39-31 in the opening moments of the second half but Fisher responded with a run of its own, scoring 12 of the next 16 points.  Tyler Hart's 3-pointer knotted the game at 43 apiece with 10 minutes to play.

Fisher, however was uncharacteristically off from the floor in the second half, shooting just 27 percent which allowed the Ducks to take control of the game.  The Cardinals rank third in the country in field goal percentage at nearly 51 percent per contest.

Over the next six minutes Stevens went on an 11-2 run to match its largest lead of the contest at 54-46 with just under four minutes left in the game.

Fisher cut the lead to four twice, including a layup by Chaz Lott with :52 seconds on the clock, but that is as close as the visitors would come.

Lott was the only Fisher player to score in double figures, recording 12 points to go along with nine boards and five assists.  Ryan pulled down a game-high 16 boards, while chipping in seven points.  Bock, Optimystik Kinard, and Hart each notched eight points.