CLINTON, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team continued its six-game road trip on Tuesday as the Bombers suffered an 88-80 loss in a non-conference matchup against Hamilton College in Scott Field House. With the loss, Ithaca falls to 9-6 on the season while the Continentals improve to 8-8.

Both teams jockeyed for the lead early on in the opening stanza.  After falling behind, 18-12, seven minutes in, Ithaca would make it a one-point game when Matt Flood connected from distance to make it 18-17 in favor of the Continentals.  Both teams would get an easy bucket in the paint before Hamilton would string together an 11-2 run to open up a 13-point lead, 41-28, with four minutes to play in the half.

Ithaca would cut the home team's lead to single-digits but a pair of freebies at the charity stripe by Hamilton put the Bombers down 10, 48-38, heading into the break.

Coming out of intermission, the momentum began to swing in Ithaca's favor as the Bombers used a 7-1 run capped by back-to-back lay-ups from Joey Flanagan to make it 49-45 with 17:18 showing on the clock.  Ithaca would continue to pour over the next several minutes as Flanagan would score 13 straight points for the Bombers including three 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to make it a one possession game, 57-54.  After a Continentals' bucket in the paint made it a five-point game, Ithaca would string together six unanswered points, all from Marc Chasin, to take its first lead of the game since the 19:09 mark of the first half.

The lead would be short-lived, however, lasting just over two minutes before Hamilton built a double-digit lead courtesy of a 12-2 run late in the second frame en route to the eight-point win.

Flanagan led the way for Ithaca with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting including four from 3-point land.  The Poughkeepsie native also added three steals on the defensive end of the court.  Chasin finished with 18 points to go along with six rebounds and three assists while Peter Ezema, the reigning Empire 8 Rookie of the Week, contributed 17 points and nine boards.  Carroll Rich added 13 points and Sam Bevan tallied a game-high seven assists.

The Bombers will continue their tour of New York at 6 p.m. on Friday when they travel to Utica to take on the Pioneers in an Empire 8 bout.