ITHACA, N.Y. -- The #8 men's basketball team (24-1, 15-1 Empire 8) will host this weekend's Empire 8 Championship Tournament. The top-seeded Bombers will host the Nazareth, the tournament's fourth seed at 4 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. The winner will take on the winner of the Rochester Institute of Technology-Utica matchup Sunday at 1 p.m., with the legue's automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs at stake. All three games will be at Ithaca's Ben Light Gymnasium.

The Bombers enter the weekend on a 12-game winning streak, matching the 1963-64 team and their own season-opening streak for the longest undefeated run in school history. With 24 wins, the team has already set a program record for wins in a season. The Bombers are also poised to set a record in points per game; they are currently at 89.6 points per game, well ahead of the record of 82.5 set by the 2007-08 squad.

Senior Sean Burton (Notre Dame/Yorkville) paces the Empire 8 in scoring (22.0 ppg), assists (7.9) and free-throw shooting (91.6%). On Thursday, he was named Empire 8 Player of the Year, becoming the first player in conference history to win the award twice outright. Burton currently stands fourth in the nation in assists per game, sixth in free-throw shooting and 16th in scoring.

He is one of six Bombers to average double-figures in scoring, joining sophomore Chris Cruz (Camillus/West Genesee) (13.4 ppg), senior Sean Leahy (11.2 ppg), senior Brendan Rogers (Liverpool/Liverpool) (11.0 ppg), senior Jeff Bostic (Geneva/Geneva) (10.5 ppg) and freshman Jordan Marcus (Solomon Schechter/West Orange, N.J.). Ihaca is one of just two teams in Division III to have six players average at least 10 points a game.

Bostic, who also ranks second in the Empire 8 at 10.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game, was named a second-team Empire 8 all-star, his third appearance on the all-conference team. Cruz and Rogers were honorable mentions.

Nazareth enters the weekend with 12-13 record, including 9-7 in Empire 8 play. The Golden Flyers have won eight of their last ten Empire 8 games.

Ithaca won both meetings between the two teams during the regular season by an average margin of 29.5 points. The Bombers won 122-90 at home Jan. 9 and 113-86 at Nazareth Feb. 20.

Ticket prices for the weekend's agmes are $4 (general admission) and $2 (students with ID, senior citizens and children under 12). No complimentary passes will be accepted.

Fans can follow all three games online through Live Stats, by watching ICTV's broadcast through Stretch Internet or WICB and VIC's radio coverage (VIC will broadcast the Utica-RIT game; WICB will broadcast the other two games).