ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team earned a 71-58 Liberty League victory over Clarkson University inside Ben Light Gymnasium Saturday afternoon, Jan. 12. The 58 points surrendered by Ithaca are the fewest this season and the fewest since IC allowed 56 points to Houghton College on Jan. 19, 2017. The Bombers are now 8-6 on the season and 4-3 in the Liberty League, while Clarkson falls to 3-11 and 2-5.

Junior Sebastian Alderete led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range. Alderete scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half and finished the contest with five assists and three rebounds.

Senior Peter Ezema tallied 19 points, eight rebounds and three steals on Saturday. Ezema went 7-for-16 from the field and scored 10 of his points over the final five minutes of the contest. Junior Riley Thompson also reached double figures in points with 15 and was 8-of-11 at the free throw line.

Freshman Skylar Sinon recorded five steals, while classmate George Sikoryak III pulled down six rebounds. Sophomores Cooper Macklin and Bryan Karl each finished with five points.

The Bombers forced a season-high 25 turnovers on Saturday and held Clarkson to just 32.3-percent shooting (20-for-62) overall and 19.4% (6-for-31) from 3-point range.

In the first half, it took more than two minutes before either team could score, but Thompson cracked the scoreboard first with a 3-point at the 17:39 mark. That basket jump started an 11-0 run for the Bombers over the next two minutes. Clarkson would remain scoreless for almost seven minutes but ended its drought with 13:06 left in the first half.

By the 10:32 mark of the half, Ithaca went up by 11 points, 16-5, on a layup from freshman Zach Warech. Both teams would go cold once again as neither team found the bottom of the net until 6:44 on the clock as the Golden Knights converted a three-point play to make the score 16-8 in favor of IC.

From there, Ithaca went on an 8-2 run to build a 24-10 advantage over the next 1:06. During that stretch, Thompson and Karl each scored three points and Alderete capped off the run.

The Bombers added three more points to their lead by the 2:27 mark to establish their largest lead of the game at 33-16 after a pair of made free throws by Macklin.

Clarkson pulled back to within 10 points by intermission, 33-23, as they closed out the half on a 7-0 spurt.

The run continued to start the second half with nine more points for Clarkson, which made the score 33-32 within the opening 2:41. After Thompson made both free throw attempts, the Golden Knights drilled a 3-pointer to knot the contest up at 35-35 with 16:56 to go.

Alderete then scored eight straight points for the Bombers to turn a 35-35 stalemate into a 43-37 lead for the Bombers with less than 15 minutes to play.

Clarkson once again battled back and closed to within three points at 45-42, but Alderete answered once again with five quick points to push IC's advantage back out to eight at 50-42 with 11:15 left.

Over the next seven minutes, the Golden Knights crept back to within a four-point spread at 54-50, but that was the closest Clarkson would get for the remainder of the game.

By the 2:44 mark, Ithaca went back up by nine points at 61-52 on an Ezema layup. The Bombers then scored 10 points over the final 1:33 to put the game away.

IC went 24-for-56 (42.9%) overall and was 16-for-24 (66.7%) at the line. The Bombers also notched a season-best 15 steals in the win.

Ithaca will be on the road next weekend with games at RPI and Skidmore on Jan. 18-19.