PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team ran its winning streak to six games on Saturday after cruising to a wire-to-wire win over Hartwick College, 91-63, in an Empire 8 tilt inside Manning and Napier Varsity Gymnasium on Bobby Wanzer Court. With the win, Fisher, which sits atop the Empire 8 conference standings, moved to 11-6 overall and 6-0 in conference play while the hawks fell to 11-7, 3-4, respectively.
Fisher set the tone early as
Sean Williams penetrated and kicked it out to
Sammy Robinson who buried a deep 3-pointer from the wing. From there, the offensive onslaught continued as the Cardinals rattled off 12 of the half's next 15 points including seven unanswered to hold a 10-point edge, 17-7.
With nearly seven minutes gone by, Hartwick would cut the gap to five points with a small 5-0 run, but the home team countered and scored eight straight points as part of a larger 14-3 burst that included six points apiece from
Brendan Trapper and
James Leone to open up a 31-15 cushion.
Ahead by double digits, Fisher's pace quickened as the lead ballooned to as many as 19 points before the Hawks closed out the first half with an 8-3 run to head into the halftime break trailing by 14, 49-35.
The Cardinals' lead would grow to 21 midway through the second half after Trapper found Leone cutting through the lane for two points to make it 73-52. From there, the Cardinals continued to fire on all cylinders and would see their advantage grow to as many as 30 points in the final minute of play.
Leone produced 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting of the bench along with five assists while Robinson added 14 points, three rebounds and two dimes in 17 minutes. Trapper came off the bench and chipped in with 14 points and seven rebounds while
Dennis Hare chipped in with 11 points in all.
The Cardinals were a season-best 33-of-52 from the field (.635) and finished with 24 assists overall. Defensively, Fisher disrupted the Hawks' rhythm all game and turned the visitors over 17 times.
The Cardinals will play again at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday as they travel to Nazareth College for the first edition of the Battle of the Beaks inside Kidera Gymnasium.
