ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team rolled past Bard College, 85-68, on the road Friday evening in IC's Liberty League opener to improve to 3-1 on the season. Ithaca never trailed in the contest and led by as many as 22 points in the contest.

Senior Riley Thompson led all scorers in the game with 25 points on 8-of-17 shooting and 7-of-10 at the free throw line, to go along with five rebounds. Freshman Jack Stern poured in a career-best 20 points in 26 minutes of action as he connected on 8-of-17 from the floor and ripped down eight rebounds.

Sophomore Bryan Karl added 13 points off the bench on 5-of-9 shooting in just 12 minutes of action, while senior Sebastian Alderete chipped in eight points and seven rebounds. Fellow senior Jake Mitchell added five points on a dunk and 3-pointer, to go along with four assists, three rebounds and two steals.

Sophomore Skylar Sinon facilitated the offense with seven assists and added seven points, five boards and two steals.

The Bombers were red-hot from the floor in the first half as they shot 56.8-percent overall (21-for-37) to build a 51-31 lead by intermission, which were the most points scored in a first half since IC put up 55 on Skidmore last season on February 1 (55 points). Ithaca also tallied 15 points off 11 Raptor turnovers during the opening 20 minutes of action.

After ties at 2-2 and 4-4, IC scored eight straight points to take a 12-4 lead with 16:13 left in the first half as Stern scored four points during that spurt. A minute later, IC took its first double-digit advantage at 16-6 on an Alderete layup and the Bombers would go on to lead by at least 10 points for the rest of the contest, except for one occasion at 19-11.

Ithaca established its first 20-point cushion with 2:55 to go in the half, 47-26, on another Alderete lay-in. Stern closed out Ithaca's first half with four straight points for the 51-31 difference.

In the second half, the Bombers' offense cooled off as IC went just 11-for-39 overall (28.2%), but the 20-point lead after 20 minutes was enough to come away with the victory.

With just under six minutes to go, Bard pulled to within 67-54, but that was the closest the Raptors could get. After that, the Bombers quickly went back up by 20 points at 74-54, as Thompson made three free throws and Alderete and Sinon scored baskets by the 4:06 mark.

Karl matched Ithaca's largest lead of the outing at 83-61 on a 3-pointer with 1:04 left in the game.

The Bombers will head to Vassar College tomorrow for another Liberty League showdown at 4 p.m. in Poughkeepsie.