ELMIRA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team turned a five-point halftime lead into a 16-point win as the Bombers earned their second straight victory with an 80-64 decision over Elmira College on Wednesday night inside Speidel Gymnasium.  With the win, Ithaca, which entered the day ranked fourth in the Empire 8 standings, improves to 11-7 overall and 5-4 against conference opponents while the Soaring Eagles fall to 3-15 overall and 1-8 in conference play.

The lead would change hands four times over the course of the first five minutes of play before the Bombers took the lead for good at 14:56 on a lay-up by Matt Flood to take an 11-10 lead.  From there, Ithaca would utilize an 11-4 run to build its advantage to seven points, but the Soaring Eagles would chip away after sinking 3-pointers on three straight possessions to cut the Bombers' hold to one point, 25-24.

As the half wore on, both offenses seemed to stall as neither would record a field goal until a bucket in the paint by Flood halted a scoring drought that lasted over six minutes of play and staked Ithaca to a five-point margin, which would hold through the final horn of the first half.

Coming out of the break, Ithaca would build its advantage to 15 points after orchestrating a 13-3 run including 11 unanswered points in which the Bombers scored four straight field goals in the lane to take a 54-39 lead.

The Soaring Eagles would cut the deficit to 10 points with 10:13 left to go but the Bombers continued to fire on all cylinders after stringing together another run, this time a 10-2 spurt, to claim their largest lead of the contest, 66-48.  Elmira would gain some steam late, eventually cutting the visitors' edge to nine points, but that was as close as it would come as the Bombers controlled the pace throughout the final three minutes en route to the 80-64 win.

Marc Chasin led the way for Ithaca, scoring a game-high 29 points on 10-of-17 shooting.  The Coral Gables, Fla. native was perfect from the free throw line, converting all seven of his attempts.  Chasin also added seven rebounds and five assists in the win.  Sam Bevan contributed 10 points and reached double-digits in assists for the second consecutive game after dishing out 10.  Peter Ezema finished with 13 points and pulled down eight boards while Carroll Rich tallied nine points overall.

Ithaca, which was credited with 21 assists on 31 field goals, held the Soaring Eagles to just .393 (24-of-61) from the floor while coming up with six steals.  As a team, the Bombers took care of the ball on the offensive end, turning the ball over only nine times.

IC will close out its six-game road trip at 2 p.m. on Saturday when it travels to Pittsford to battle the Nazareth College Golden Flyers in Kidera Gymnasium. 

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