UTICA, N.Y. – The third-seeded St. John Fisher College men's basketball had its season come to a close on Friday as the Cardinals fell to second-seeded Nazareth College, 80-71, in the semifinal round of the Empire 8 Championship inside the Clark Athletic Center.  With the defeat, the Cardinals wrapped up the year at 19-7 while the Golden Flyers improved to 22-4 and advanced to take on the top-seeded Utica University Pioneers on Saturday afternoon.

Junior Daniel Cook led the way for Fisher with his 18th double-double of the year.  The forward, who was named the league's Player of the Year on Thursday, scored 28 points and hauled in 10 rebounds while Sean Williams chipped in with 12 points, seven rebounds and an assist.  Ryan Gentile notched 11 points in the loss while Brendan Trapper finished with five points and six rebounds.

The Cardinals led throughout the opening eight minutes as a 3-pointer from Cook staked the visitors to a 24-16 edge with 12:06 left to play in the first half.

Ahead by eight, Fisher saw its lead slip away as the Golden Flyers orchestrated an 11-3 run that included nine unanswered points to level the game at 27 points aside.  From there, the advantage would change hands four times over the next six minutes until a final-second lay-up by Nazareth made it 42-39 in the Golden Flyers' favor at the break.

Trailing by three to begin the second half, the Cardinals found a rhythm and used a 9-2 burst over a span of 2:27 to capture the lead, 48-47.  The advantage would be short-lived, however, as Nazareth countered with 11 straight points of its own to open up a double-digit lead, 58-48.

As the game wore on, Gentile buried a 3-poiinter to make it a seven-point affair, but Nazareth continued to knock down shots and built its lead to 15 with under 10 minutes to go in the game.

Facing a steep climb with time working against it, Fisher pushed the tempo and cut the lead to four after scoring 14 of the game's next 17 points to climb to within four points with 4:04 remaining.

With momentum favoring the Cardinals, Nazareth regained control with four quick points before Fisher countered with four of the game's next five points to make it 76-71 with 1:23 to play.  From there, head coach Mike Grosodonia II's squad came up with a stop on the defensive end of the floor, but was unable to capitalize after being whistled for an offensive foul on the other end to give the ball back to the Golden Flyers with under a minutes still to go in the game.

Still trailing by two possessions, Fisher put its rival at the line where Nazareth buried both attempts and escaped with a nine-point win.

As a team, Fisher was 24-of-55 (.436) from the floor and 15-of-16 from the free throw line.