GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team got its 2018-19 season underway on Friday evening at the Gettysburg Tip-Off Tournament but wound up on the wrong end of a 92-84 decision to the host Bullets inside Bream Gymnasium. Gettysburg earns its first win of the season and now stands 1-3 overall.

Gettysburg jumped out to an 8-0 start over the opening 1:48 of play, but IC answered with nine straight over the next two minutes to secure its first lead of the contest, 9-8, with 16:24 left in the first half. During the 9-0 run, junior Sebastian Alderete scored four points, while senior Peter Ezema added a bucket and junior Riley Thompson connected on a 3-pointer.

The Bullets would regain the advantage on the next possession and then went up by four points on a 3-pointer with 15:47 to go. After another basket by Thompson made the score 13-11, Gettysburg went on an 8-0 in 1:27 to build a 10-point cushion at 21-11 with 13:04 to play in the half.

IC cut its deficit to three points, 21-18, by the midway mark of the first half behind five points from sophomore Bryan Karl, but another 6-0 run by the Bullets pushed the difference back out to nine (27-18) at the 7:31 mark.

Gettysburg would maintain its lead for the next four minutes until a layup from Thompson with 3:32 remaining in the half gave the Bombers a 32-31 edge. Three straight points from Ezema extended IC's lead to 35-31 a minute later, and with under a minute left, the Bombers posted a six-point cushion, 41-35, on an Ezema three-ball.

The Bullets closed out the half with five straight points to pull to within one at 41-40 heading into intermission.

IC and Gettysburg stayed within a one possession contest over the initial 3:57 of the second half the Bullets knotted things up at 46-46. They would then take a 47-46 lead on a free throw, but the Bombers took it right back on a 3-pointer from Karl with 15:33 on the clock.

The Bomber lead grew to 54-50 over the next minute and then both teams would go scoreless over the next two minutes.

With 10:35 to go, Gettysburg jumped back in front, 58-56, with a 3-pointer, and 30 seconds later added another bucket to take a four-point lead.

A 3-pointer from Ezema and layup from Alderete staked IC to a 61-60 tally at the 9:15 mark of the half, and then the lead changed three times in a 24-second span.

Now with a 65-63 score in favor of the Bullets with 8:25 remaining, Gettysburg scored seven of the next nine points to secure a seven-point disparity, 72-65, with just under seven minutes on the clock.

The Bombers fought their way back to a one-point lead, 73-72, with 5:08 showing, as Karl and Thompson connected from deep and another Thompson basket capped off the run. Gettysburg responded with six unanswered points in a 1:21 spurt and never relinquished the lead from there.

Gettysburg pushed its lead out to a nine-point spread, 86-77, with a minute to play and IC managed to bring things to within five, 89-84, before time expired.

Thompson led the Bombers with 25 points on 10-of-17 from the floor, including three from beyond the arc. Karl registered a career-high 22 points off the bench on an efficient 7-of-12 shooting (5-of-10 from 3-point range) and Ezema added 18 points for the Bombers.

Alderete chipped in six points and six rebounds for the Bombers, while senior Jake Mitchell scored four points and handed out three assists.

Ithaca returns to action tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. against an opponent still to be determined. The Bombers will play the loser of Randolph-Macon and Albright for the third place game of the Gettysburg Tip-Off Tournament.