ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team opened up its 2017-18 home schedule in excited fashion as the Bombers posted a 100-72 victory over visiting SUNY Canton inside Ben Light Gymnasium on Friday evening. Ithaca improves its record to 1-1 in the early season, while Canton drops to 0-1. Friday's game was part of the annual Cortaca Classic.

Ithaca jumped out to an 18-0 lead over Canton by the 15:21 point of the first half and never looked back as the Bombers cruised to the wire-to-wire victory.

During the opening run, sophomore Riley Thompson scored eight of his 24 first half points and would go on to finish the evening with a game-high and career-high 29 on 10-of-18 shooting from the floor and 7-of-14 from 3-point range.

The Kangaroos ended Ithaca's run on a free throw with 14:57 remaining, but did not make their first basket until the 11:04 mark. After Canton's initial basket made the score 25-4, Ithaca pushed its advantage back out to 25 points at 29-4 on buckets from Thompson and junior Peter Ezema midway through the half.

Ithaca's lead shrunk to 30-14 with 7:51 to play, but the Bombers answered with a 19-7 run over the next 4:33 to establish the largest disparity of the opening 20 minutes at 49-21. Over that stretch of time, Thompson poured in 12 more points, all from 3-point range, while senior Marc Chasin hit four free throws and classmate Carroll Rich added the other two points.

Canton scored the final six points of the half to make the score 49-27 heading into intermission.

Ithaca shot 18-for-34 (52.9-percent) in the first half and 7-for-16 (43.8%) from distance. The Bombers also assisted on half of their makes.

In the second stanza, the Bombers secured their first 30-plus point advantage of the night at the 15:54 mark as Rich converted a three-point play to make the score 64-32.

The score would remain at a 30-point spread until a Canton layup at 11:14 closed things to 75-46, but the difference moved back out to 31 on a Chasin bucket just 13 seconds later.

Chasin finished the evening with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting with seven rebounds and three assists. He netted 15 points in the second half and was 5-for-7 at the free throw line.

Chasin would cap off his outing with a 3-pointer at the 5:47 mark to give Ithaca its largest lead of the night at 92-57.

Ithaca reached the 100-point milestone on a 3-pointer from junior Aidan Fite, a tip-in by classmate Adam Kleckner and a 3-pointer from senior Brendan Till.

The Bombers concluded the outing with 39 made baskets on 73 shots (53.4%) and 12-for-33 from beyond the arc (36.4%). IC also pulled down 44 rebounds and handed out 23 assists.

Rich added 10 points with three assists, while Ezema chipped in eight points. Junior Matt Flood tallied six rebounds, five points, three assists and three steals.

Junior Miles Herman registered six points, while sophomore Sebastian Alderete notched five points. Seniors Joey Flanagan and Tyler Lemza, and freshman Cooper Macklin all found the scoring column for the Bombers.

Ithaca will return to action on November 28 at 8 p.m. as the Bombers welcome Cortland to Ben Light Gymnasium.