ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Senior Dennis Hare was named Most Valuable Player as the second-seeded St. John Fisher College men's basketball team overcame a 20-point deficit en route to a 72-64 win over top-seeded Nazareth College on Saturday to win the Empire 8 Championship and an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Championship next weekend.  With the win, Fisher, which has now claimed nine Empire 8 titles in its history, improved to 19-8 on the year while the Golden Flyers finished the weekend with a 21-6 mark.

The Cardinals will advance to their first NCAA tournament since reaching the second round in 2017.  Fisher will find out where and who it faces in the opening round at 12:30 p.m. on Monday during the NCAA Selection Show.  Fans can tune in live by CLICKING HERE.

Hare earned the championship's top individual accolade after finishing with a game-high 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting.  The Red Hook native also added four rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals in the win.  Sammy Robinson netted 21 points and six boards of his own while Matt Asenjo finished with his first double-double of the season on 16 points and 10 rebounds.  Dylan Harrington came off the bench and chipped in with seven points, six rebounds and three assists in 28 big minutes.

It was all Nazareth in the early goings as the Golden Flyers jumped out to a 35-15 lead in the first half.  Trailing by 20 with just over five minutes remaining in the opening frame, Fisher went to work as the Cardinals' offense sprang to life with a 15-2 run capped off by a 3-pointer from Asenjo to pull to within seven points, 37-30 with 1:35 still showing on the clock.  From there, Nazareth buried a triple to push its advantage back to double figures, but Robinson countered with a 3-pointer of his own to keep it a seven-point affair at the break.

The Cardinals carried the momentum over to begin the second half as a free throw from Asenjo sparked a 9-0 run to stake the visitors to their first lead of the game, 42-40.

After the Golden Flyers battled back to tie the game at 42-42, Fisher's offense produced another run in the form of a 9-3 burst that was bookended by two 3-pointers from hare to open up its largest lead of the game, 51-45.

With just over 11 minutes to go in the game, Nazareth would cut the gap to four points, but was unable to come up with a timely stop on the defensive end of the floor as the Cardinals took advantage with four quick points to hold an eight-point edge. 

With momentum favoring the Cardinals, the tides seemed to shift as the Golden Flyers found a rhythm and scored 14 of the game's next 16 points including 11 unanswered to pull ahead, 63-59 with under four minutes to play in the contest.

Trailing by four and with time winding down, the Cardinals returned the favor as Harrington and Asenjo connected on back-to-back threes to spark a 13-1 run to close out the game with head coach Mike Grosodonia II's squad earning the conference title in the process.

As a team, Fisher was 25-for-61 from the floor and buried nine from distance in all.  The Cardinals out-rebounded Nazareth, 40-33, and forced the Golden Flyers in to 14 turnovers on the day.