ITHACA, N.Y.—The men's basketball team (10-2, 3-0 Empire 8) won its eighth straight Friday, hammering visiting Nazareth (8-4, 5-1 Empire 8) 87-54. The teams entered the game as two of the three teams unbeaten in Empire 8 play; Ithaca faces the other – 3-0 St. John Fisher – Saturday afternoon.

Freshman point guard Sean Rossi (Sparta/Sparta, N.J.) and junior forward Phil Barera (Belmont/Belmont, Mass.) both recorded double-doubles; Rossi scored 12 points and added 12 assists while Barera led Ithaca with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Rossi's fourth double-double included his fifth game with at least 10 assists; the freshman ranks fifth nationally with an average of 8.8 per game. His 12-game total of 105 is already 15th on the program's single-season list and his average is 1.1 better than Ithaca's full-season record (set last year by all-American Sean Burton).

Barera made 12 of his 16 shots to maintain his Division III-leading 75 percent field-goal accuracy. Barera's 10 rebounds were one short of a career-high and gave him his sixth double-double of the season.

Freshman Andrei Oztemel (Staples/Westport, Conn.) scored 18 points off the bench, including 16 in the first half. The Bombers shot a blistering 72.4 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes, making 21 of their 29 attempts. They took a 52-25 lead into intermission.

Sophomore guard Jordan Marcus (Solomon Schechter/West Orange, N.J.) added 12 points and junior guard Chris Cruz-Rivas (Syracuse/West Genesee) finished with seven points, seven rebounds and a career-best four assists.

Ithaca turned in its best performance defensively, holding the Golden Flyers – who came in averaging 72.3 points per game while shooting 44 percent from the floor – to 33.8 percent shooting , including a 28.1 percent mark (nine of 32) in the first half. The Bombers have held their last two opponents under 38 percent accuracy from the floor.

The Bombers play a 4 p.m. game at St. John Fisher Saturday.

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