MARIETTA, Ohio – The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College men's basketball team was defeated on Saturday by Hope College, 97-86, in the inaugural Great Lakes Invitational inside Ban Johnson Arena.  With the loss, Fisher, which is ranked 19th in the initial D3hoops.com poll, slipped to 1-2 on the season while Hope improved its standing to 1-1.

Ryan Henderson, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, led the way for Fisher with a career-high 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting.  The junior added six rebounds and two assists at the guard position.  Sophomore Sammy Robinson finished with 16 points and four helpers while Tyler English contributed 13 points, four boards and four assists.  Freshman Mark Valeriani had nine points and three dimes while Jake Haight scored eight points.

The Cardinals controlled the pace of play from the opening whistle as Fisher jumped out to a six-point lead, 12-6, over the first four minutes of play.  The lead remained in Fisher's hands for another six minutes until Hope orchestrated a 9-1 run to hold its first lead since its opening possession, 22-21.  The Flying Dutchmen didn't maintain their advantage for long, however, as Haight drained a 3-pointer to give the Cardinals the edge.

After giving three points back to Hope with an old-fashioned 3-point play, the Cardinals began to create some distance with a 10-2 run including eight unanswered points that made it a nine-point game, 38-29.  Head coach Michael Grosodonia II's squad would eventually build a 14-point advantage after an alley-oop dunk by Henderson from Michael D'Amico, but the Flying Dutchmen closed out the opening half with a small surge to head into the locker room trailing by eight points, 57-49.

The Cardinals were nearly perfect from the field over the first 20 minutes of action after shooting 22-for-29 (.759) from the floor.  The team also drained four threes and turned the ball over just seven times.

The second half was a different story as the Cardinals' hot shooting seemed to cool as the team went 11-for-28 (.393) while Hope climbed back to within one point after a 9-2 run before a jumper by Henderson put Fisher back up by three points, 61-58.  The bucket did little to halt Hope's momentum though as the Flying Dutchmen continued to get up and down the court to the tune of eight straight points to turn a one-possession deficit into a five-point lead, 66-61.

The Cardinals would eventually reclaim the lead with back-to-back 3-pointers from Valeriani, but three straight free throws followed by a 3-pointer swung the lead back in Hope's favor with 8:16 left to play.

Fisher continued to battle down the stretch and was able to open up a slight lead after D'Amico found a seam and converted a lay-up, but a 12-2 spurt by the Flying Dutchmen staked Hope to a 90-81 lead with time dwindling.

The Cardinals will make their home debut at 6 p.m. on Tuesday as they welcome The College of Wooster to Manning and Napier Varsity Gymnasium and Bobby Wanzer Court.