ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team overcame a late-game rally by the Elmira College Soaring Eagles on Tuesday to hold on for a 77-73 win in Ben Light Gymnasium.  With the win, Ithaca improves to 9-4 overall and 3-2 in the conference standings while the Soaring Eagles fall to 2-11 on the season and 0-4 in conference play.

The Soaring Eagles got off to a quick start scoring their first eight points in the paint to claim a four-point lead, 8-4.  The Bombers would tie the score at 16-16 with 12:26 showing on the first half clock before building an eight-point lead, 24-16, courtesy of 10 unanswered points including back-to-back triples by Joey Flanagan and Jake Mitchell.

Elmira countered with some timely shooting of its own, cutting Ithaca's lead to four points after burying two 3-pointers in a span of 30 seconds to make it 26-22 in favor of the home team.

With 3:55 left before intermission, Sam Bevan connected from distance giving the Bombers a 32-25 lead.  Both teams exchanged points down the stretch but Ithaca would strike last when Carroll Rich would nail a long two from the top of the key to send both teams into the locker room with Ithaca leading by eight, 37-29.

Ithaca would retain its lead throughout the first 12 minutes of the second stanza until the Soaring Eagles knotted things up at 54-54 with a 3-pointer from the left wing.  From there, Elmira would answer Ithaca at every turn, tying the contest two more times before a pair of free throws from Mitchell put the Bombers up for good.

The Bombers would build their advantage back to a seven points with less than two minutes remaining when Peter Ezema stole the ball on the perimeter and took it the length of the floor for the emphatic dunk.

Elmira would hang around, though, eventually coming to within one point, 74-73 after an old-fashioned 3-point play, but three straight free throws from Mitchell in the final eight seconds sealed the win for Ithaca.

Rich led the way with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor.  Ezema added 14 points of his own to go along with eight boards and five steals while Marc Chasin poured in 13 points and four helpers.  Senior Sam Bevan finished with 10 points including seven free throws.  Mitchell contributed nine points, four steals and three rebounds.

As a team, the Bombers shot 26-of-60 overall (.433) and went 20-of-26 from the charity stripe.  Defensively, IC forced the Soaring Eagles into 19 turnovers.

The Bombers will hit the road for six straight games beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday when they invade Pittsford to battle the St. John Fisher College Cardinals in a conference bout.