ITHACA, N.Y. - The Ithaca men's basketball team (6-2, 2-0 Empire 8) picked up its fourth straight win overall and remained perfect in Empire 8 play with a 94-84 victory over Nazareth (6-2, 0-1 Empire 8) Thursday night at Ben Light Gymnasium. Five Ithaca players scored in double figures, led by junior guard Jordan Marcus (Solomon Schechter/West Orange, N.J.) with 22 points. It was the fourth time this season that Ithaca had five players score 10 or more points.

Having not once trailed in the second half of its last four games, Ithaca capitalized on a one-point, 40-39, halftime margin to outscore the Golden Flyers, 54-45, in the second frame to tally its second conference victory.

Shooting just 31.8 percent from the floor in the first half, the Bombers led by as many as seven at the 14:21 mark before six unanswered brought Nazareth back within one. The score went on to be knotted on six occasions, while featuring eight first frame lead changes, as the Bombers held on to a one-point edge at intermission.

Ithaca outscored the Golden Flyers, 15-7, in the opening 3:35 of the second stint but the visiting squad answered to bring the score to 60-58 at the 12-minute mark. The teams went bucket-for-bucket over the next four minutes before a Nazareth three knotted action for the seventh and final time.

Ithaca responded with nine of the next 12 points and never allowed the Golden Flyers within a single possession of the lead.

Four consecutive free throws from the tips of senior guard Chris Cruz-Rivas (West Genesee/Syracuse) and sophomore guard Sean Rossi (Sparta/Sparta, N.J.) helped the Bombers to their first double-digit cushion of the contest with just 25 seconds lingering on the game clock.

Nazareth, who had its four-game win streak snapped by the Bombers, hit a three-pointer to bring them within eight with 12 seconds on the clock, but Cruz-Rivas drained another pair from the charity stripe to seal the final score at 94-84.

Ithaca shot 42.5 percent from the floor throughout the 40 minutes of action, while Nazareth shot 40.6 percent. The Bombers, who scored 13 points off of the Golden Flyers' 12 turnovers, saw a game-high 12 assists from Rossi who earned his second consecutive double-double by adding 10 points.

Senior center Phil Barera (Belmont/Belmont, Conn.) fell one rebound shy of his fourth double-double of the season as he was Ithaca's second-highest scorer with 18 and led the team with nine boards. Sophomore forward Andrei Oztemel (Staples/Westport, Conn.) tallied 16 points and Cruz-Rivas finished with 12 and the pair had seven and eight rebounds, respectively.

Ithaca will play its final game of 2010 on Saturday, Dec. 11 at Oneonta at 2 p.m.

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