UTICA, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team pushed its winning streak to four games as the Cardinals defeated Utica College on the road, 74-65, inside the Clark Athletic Center in what was the Empire 8 debut for both squads.  With the win, Fisher improved to 6-4 overall and 1-0 in the conference standings while Utica fell to 5-5 on the season and 0-1 against Empire 8 opponents.

In all, 11 different players scored in the win with four reaching double figures.  Dylan Harrington led the way for the Cardinals with a career-high 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting to go along with two assists.  Tyler English and Jake Haight finished with 11 points apiece while Ryan Henderson added 10 points and five rebounds.  James Leone contributed seven points and three assists and Sammy Robinson chipped in with seven points of his own with eight rebounds. 

After falling behind early on in the first half, Fisher took the lead for good with 13:06 still showing on the clock as Leone penetrated and dished to Haight for the layup to make it 13-12 in Fisher's favor.  The bucket sparked a 9-2 run – all of which came in the paint – as the Cardinals built a seven-point lead, 21-14.

The Pioneers would keep it close and eventually came to within two points, but Fisher closed out the opening stanza with another run, this time producing 16 of the game's next 23 points to head in to halftime holding an 11-point cushion, 41-30.

As the second half got underway, Fisher continued to pound the ball inside as the Cardinals opened up a 21-point advantage courtesy of an 11-1 run, which included four points from both Robinson and English to make it 52-31 with just over 17 minutes remaining.

Trailing by a significant margin, but with plenty of time left to go, the Pioneers went to work and eventually whittled Fisher's lead down to five points, 70-65, but the Cardinals reclaimed the momentum as Sammy Robinson caught the ball on the baseline and converted the three-point play to give the visitors a comfortable lead with 32 seconds left.

Overall, Fisher was 31-for-61 (.508) from the floor and converted 8-of-13 attempts from the charity stripe.  The Cardinals out-rebounded the Pioneers 36-32 and forced Utica into 13 turnovers.  Defensively, the team surrendered just three 3-point field goals while holding the home team to under 43 percent shooting on the night.

Fisher will look to extend its winning streak at 6 p.m. on Thursday when it heads south to Elmira to face the Soaring Eagles in an Empire 8 tilt.