KEUKA PARK, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team edged its winning streak to four games on Friday night as the Cardinals overcame a slow start en route to a 102-86 win over Keuka College in an Empire 8 clash inside the JMW Recreation and Athletics Center. With the victory, the Cardinals improved to 13-4 and moved to 7-1 in the Empire 8 standings while the Wolves fell to 0-12 overall and 0-4 against league opposition.
The Cardinals got off to a slow start with the Wolves taking advantage and building a double-digit lead with six minutes left to play in the opening half. Trailing 40-29, the Cardinals found their footing and quickly turned an 11-point deficit into an eight-point lead after orchestrating a 14-0 run in a span of 3:26 to hold a 48-40 edge.
As the half wore on, Keuka would cut the margin down to six before the visitors closed out the half with eight of the final 13 points to take a 56-47 cushion into the locker room.
With momentum up for grabs to begin the second half, Keuka seized its opportunity and used an 11-2 run that featured three makes from behind the arc to pull to within five, 65-60. Down by two possessions, the home team stalled with Fisher recovering to the tune of an 18-2 burst to push its lead back to double digits, 83-64, with just over 11 minutes left to play in the game.
Leading by 19,
Jack Foley furthered Fisher's cause with a 3-pointer as part of a larger 8-0 spurt to give the Cardinals their largest lead of the game, 93-68. With time winding down, Keuka would cut the deficit to 16 in the final minute, but was unable to dig out as the final horn sounded.
Brendan Trapper led all scorers with 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting to go along with six rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals.
Daniel Cook finished with his 10th double-double of the year after accruing 21 points and 11 boards in the win.
Ian Duncan netted a career-high 19 points while
Ryan Gentile, Foley and
Joe Morrell each finished with seven points.
As a team, Fisher was 41-for-80 (.513) from the floor and handed out a season-best 27 assists. Defensively, 11 different players finished with at least one steal led by Cook who had three as the team came up with 27 swipes in all.
Fisher will look for its fifth straight win at 4 p.m. on Saturday when it hosts No. 25 Nazareth College in the first meeting of the two programs inside Manning and Napier Varsity Gymnasium on Bobby Wanzer Court.
