Behind its highest point total of the season, the St. John Fisher College men's basketball team won its fourth-straight game on Saturday after defeating host Houghton College 101-86 in Empire 8 Conference action.

With the win, the Cardinals improve to 8-3 overall and 2-0 in Empire 8 play while Houghton drops to 5-6 overall and 0-3 in conference games.

Fisher got off to a strong start in the first half after racing out to a 13-4 lead less than five minutes into the contest behind six early points from Keegan Ryan.

Not going down easy, the Highlanders fought back as they outscored the Cardinals 26-16 over the course of the next 11 minutes, taking a 30-29 lead with just 4:06 left before halftime.

Just five seconds later however, Zach Ottaway hit the first of his two consecutive layups to kick-start an 18-5 Fisher run to close out the half. The late surge left the Cardinals with a 47-35 advantage heading into intermission.

Just like the first half, the early minutes of the second half belonged to the Cardinals as they outscored Houghton 15-11 in the first four minutes of the half, extending their lead to 62-46. Ryan once again scored six points in the early stretch. The junior had one of his strongest games of the season as he finished with a game-high 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting (82%) from the floor to go along with eight rebounds.

Although Houghton would cut the Fisher lead down to nine points at 79-70 with 7:32 remaining, that would be as close as they would come within tying it as the Cardinals responded with a 9-0 run of their own before eventually going on to capture the 15-point victory.

The 101 points scored by Fisher were not only the most points scored by the team in a game this season, but also the most scored by a Fisher team in nearly one full year as the Cardinals scored 102 points in a win over Hartwick College on January 10^th of last season.

In addition to Ryan, Fisher was led in the contest by Chaz Lott and Tyler English. Lott finished the game with his second double-double of the season after scoring 22 points and tallying a career-high 13 assists while English was not far behind with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting in the game.

Ottaway contributed 13 points and seven rebounds for Fisher in addition to Tyler Hart's 11 points and four assists.

The Cardinals will return to action at 6 p.m. on Tuesday as they host Empire 8 rival Alfred University at Manning & Napier Varsity Gymnasium.