PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team nearly erased a 21-point deficit on Saturday, as the Cardinals pulled to within three points with 2.8 seconds left in the contest before a final-second half court heave fell short and the Cardinals fell to Nazareth College in the Battle of the Beaks, 77-74, inside Kidera Gymnasium.  The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for Fisher, which finished the day at 13-10 overall and 8-6 in the conference standings.  Nazareth climbed to 18-6 on the year and 13-2 against Empire 8 opponents. 

Trailing 58-37 with over seven minutes gone by in the second half, Fisher began to chip away as sophomore Dennis Hare scored the team's next eight points as part of a 12-2 run to make it a 60-49 lead in Nazareth's favor.

The advantage would swing back to 14 points after the Golden Flyers connected from downtown, but Fisher kept pace and engineered an 8-1 burst highlighted by six points from junior Ryan Henderson to pull the Cardinals to within seven points, 66-59 with 2:59 remaining in the game.

From there, Nazareth would push its cushion back to double figures as the Golden Flyers knocked down five consecutive free throws to hold a 10-point lead, 71-61.  Not to be outdone, however, Fisher made it a two possession game as Dylan Harrington worked his way into the paint before kicking it out to Hare who buried a 3-pointer to bring Fisher to within four points, 74-70.

With 30 seconds left to play, Fisher called a timeout to regroup before putting the Golden Flyers on the line to conserve time.  After making its first attempt, Nazareth drew iron on its second as Hare hauled in the rebound and handed it off to Michael D'Amico who took it the length of the court for an uncontested layup to cut it to a one possession affair. 

Leading by three points with 19 seconds left, Nazareth went back to the line, but only came away with one point.  With time winding down, Hare took the ball and drove to the basket to draw a foul before nailing both free throws to make it 76-74.  With three seconds still showing on the clock, Nazareth went back to the line, but once again could only convert 1-of-2 attempts as James Leone came away with the rebound and fired a half court shot to tie the game, but the effort fell short as Nazareth held on for the win.    

Hare led the way for Fisher with a career-high 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting as the Cardinals' bench was the driving force in the comeback with 56 points.  Henderson finished with 14 points and three rebounds while Leone added eight points, six boards and two assists.  Sammy Robinson had six points in all and both Tyler English and Alex Sausville contributed four points apiece. 

As a team, Fisher was 27-for-52 (.519) from the floor and was 18-of-28 from the charity stripe.  The Cardinals forced Nazareth into 16 turnovers and came away with eight steals on the defensive end.

The Cardinals will close out their home schedule at 6 p.m. on Tuesday when they host Elmira College in an Empire 8 showdown.