ITHACA, N.Y. – Sam Bevan and Marc Chasin combined to score 49 points as the Ithaca College men's basketball team earned its second straight win in conference play after defeating Alfred University, 91-79, on Saturday afternoon in Ben Light Gymnasium.  The win moves Ithaca to 13-10 overall and 7-7 in the Empire 8 standings.  The Saxons fall to 9-13 overall and 5-8 in conference play.

Bevan notched a new career-high with 28 points on 8-of-17 shooting.  The senior guard also accounted for nine rebounds and six assists.  Chasin finished with 21 points to go along with three boards while Carroll Rich added 17 points, five rebounds and four dimes.  Freshman Peter Ezema nailed down his 12th double-double of the season after scoring 11 points and corralling 10 rebounds. 

Ithaca jumped out to an early lead after Chasin lay-up from the right side gave the Bombers a 12-6 edge with four minutes gone by.  A pair of free throws from Alfred would make it a four point game, but Ithaca would use a 15-4 run that included eight from the charity stripe to take a double-digit lead, 29-14.

Alfred would bounce back with a run of its own, scoring 10 straight points in a span of 1:51 highlighted by two old-fashioned 3-point plays to cut Ithaca's lead down to five points, 29-24.  As the half wore on, the Bombers would push their lead to as many as 12 points but the Saxons finished the half strong, scoring 14 of the stanza's final 21 points to head into the locker room trailing by just five points, 45-40.

Despite shifting momentum, the Bombers were able to maintain their advantage over the first 20 minutes of action after 14 first half fouls by Alfred sent Ithaca to the line 19 times where they shot 17-of-19 overall.

The Bombers continued to push the ball in the second half.  Coming out of the locker room, Ithaca built a 14-point lead eight minutes into the final half after Bevan converted on back-to-back three-point plays to give the home team a 65-51 lead.

The advantage would jump to as many as 16 points after two more free throws by Bevan before the Saxons would make things interesting, cutting Ithaca's lead to just five points after putting together a 21-10 run that took nearly six minutes off the clock to bring it to 81-76.  That was as close as Alfred would get, however, as the Bombers rattled off 10 unanswered points to push their hold back to double-digits.

Overall, Ithaca made 25 of 33 attempts from the free throw line and forced the Saxons into 18 turnovers.

The Bombers will close out their regular season with a pair of home games, the first of which will be at 6 p.m. on Friday when they host Utica in Ben Light Gymnasium.