ALFRED, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team kicked off the opening end of its weekend back-to-back on Friday evening when it hit the road for the second time this week for a contest at Alfred University. Unfortunately, the Bombers were unable to snap five-game slide within Empire 8 Conference play, falling to the Saxons 85-77 to drop to 6-14 on the season and 2-9 in conference action.
 
Ithaca was paced by freshman guard Riley Thompson who notched a new career high with 21 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field. He went 3-for-9 from beyond the arc and a perfect 8-of-8 at the charity stripe, while he also added three assists in 28 minutes of action.
 
Fellow classmate, Sebastian Alderete, poured in 16 points, while also chipping in three rebounds, one block, and one steal. Sophomore forward, Peter Ezema, added 13 points and seven rebounds.
 
The first half was extremely tightly-contested between the two sides. Junior guard, Marc Chasin, as well as Thompson and Alderete each scored eight points apiece during the opening 20 minutes. The Bombers held a narrow lead throughout the majority of the half, but a cold spell toward the end of the break lifted the Saxons to a 36-31 lead at the break.
 
Ithaca led 29-28 with 4:25 left in the opening half after Thompson nailed a pair of free throws; however, the Saxons clamped down on IC down the stretch, holding the visitors to a single field goal by sophomore Adam Kleckner to conclude the half. Alfred's Dalton Cousin sparked an 8-2 run over the waning minutes with six points.
 
Thompson and Ezema helped the Bombers close the gap during opening 10 minutes of the second half. IC made a concerted effort to feed the ball to Ezema in the low block and the second-year big man did not disappoint, scoring all 13 of his points after halftime. Although the Saxons widened their lead as wide as seven points a couple times during the early portions of the half, Ezema and Thompson brought the Bombers back to a 52-all tie with 10:52 left in the contest.
 
That would be as close as Ithaca would get, as Alfred went on a scoring run shortly after the score deadlocked. After Ezema nailed a layup to close the gap to 56-54, the Saxons went on a 14-3 scoring run to break things open. The home side shot 53.3-percent after halftime.
 
Alfred opened the advantage as wide as 18 points after Dom Lemorta drilled a jumper to make the score 76-58 with 4:48 remaining. However, IC put together a furious comeback charge down the stretch. Sophomore guard Matt Flood scored five points, while Thompson continued his strong game to help the Bombers close to within two possessions at 83-77 with 38-seconds left.
 
The Saxons were able to close things out on the free throw line down the stretch to hold off the Ithaca comeback.
 
The IC men return to action tomorrow afternoon with a 4:00 p.m. tip at Ben Light Gymnasium against Stevens Institute of Technology.