PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College men's basketball was unable to hold on to a late lead in the second half as the Cardinals fell to nationally-ranked Nazareth College on Saturday afternoon, 77-71, in an Empire 8 showdown inside Manning and Napier Varsity Gymnasium on Bobby Wanzer Court.  With the defeat, Fisher slipped to 13-5 on the season and 7-2 in the conference standings while the Golden Flyers, who entered the week ranked 25th in the latest D3hoops.com poll, pushed their winning streak to 14 games to close out the day at 16-1 overall and 8-0 in league play.

Ian Duncan led the way for Fisher with 19 points on 4-of-5 shooting to go along with eight rebounds and three steals while Brendan Trapper added 16 points and seven boards in the loss.  Daniel Cook nabbed his 11th double-double of the year with 15 points and 11 rebounds paired with three assists and three steals while Sean Williams chipped in with seven points, three assists and two steals to his credit.

After falling behind by seven points over the first 20 minutes of play, the Cardinals got off to a slow start to begin the second half as the Golden Flyers extended their lead to 12 with 13:09 still showing on the clock.

Trailing by double figures, Fisher came to life on both ends of the court while the Golden Flyers went nearly eight minutes without a point.  Behind by 12, head coach Mike Grosodonia II's squad orchestrated a 15-0 run that ate up over seven minutes of clock and was capped off by a steal from Cook at midcourt that led to a breakaway dunk to give the home team its largest lead of the game, 60-57.

Facing a three-point gap, Nazareth called a timeout to collect its breathe.  When play resumed, the Golden Flyers seized the momentum and drained back-to-back 3-pointers as part of a larger 8-0 run to put the visitors up by five.

With just under four minutes remaining in the game, Fisher worked the ball inside on consecutive possessions to pull to within one, 65-64.  From there, however, the Cardinals pace cooled as Nazareth scored six of the game's next seven points to open up a six-point cushion with under a minute to go.

Down 71-65, Fisher looked to conserve time by fouling, but the Golden Flyers went 6-for-8 at the line down the stretch to hold Fisher at bay and remain atop the Empire 8 standings.   

The Cardinals will return to action at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday when they travel to Houghton to face the Highlanders for the second time this season.