ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team secured an 87-83 road win at Bard College on Friday evening to move one game closer to hosting a Liberty League quarterfinal contest next week. Ithaca, which is now 14-10 on the season and 10-7 in the Liberty League, never trailed in the game and avenged an 83-81 loss to the Raptors (12-12, 8-9) earlier this season.

Ithaca needs a victory at Vassar and/or an RPI loss to Clarkson tomorrow afternoon to claim the fourth seed in the Liberty League Championship next week.

The main stories in tonight's game were the career achievements by senior Peter Ezema and junior Riley Thompson. Ezema became the first-ever player in IC men's basketball history to accumulate 1,000 points, 900 rebounds and 200 steals with an offensive board with 53 seconds left in the first half.

Ezema finished the night with 14 points on 7-of-13 shooting with 11 rebounds and three steals for his 34th career double-double.

Earlier in the first half, Thompson connected on a 12-foot jumper in the paint at the 8:14 mark to become the 27th player in program history to score 1,000 points. Thompson netted 15 points on the night on 7-of-14 from the floor to go along with five assists.

Junior Sebastian Alderete paced Ithaca with 21 points on 7-of-14 overall and 7-of-8 at the free throw line with seven rebounds. Freshman Skylar Sinon added 11 points, four boards, three assists and three steals, while senior Matt Flood tallied 10 points and five rebounds. Sophomore Bryan Karl connected on three 3-pointers from nine points to go along with five rebounds, while freshman George Sikoryak III added seven points, five assists and four rebounds.

The Bombers got off to a hot start in the contest as they made five of their first eight shots to jump out to an 11-4 lead within the opening 3:10 of play.

IC continued its hot shooting display over the next four minutes as the Bombers extended their lead to 20-9 with 12:43 to go, which forced Bard to burn its second timeout of the half. Threes from Flood and Karl and a bucket by Sikoryak accounted for the 11-point edge.

By the 10:27 mark, Ithaca extended its lead to 26-12 on back-to-back makes from Alderete, and two minutes later, Thompson reached 1,000th points on his jumper to maintain a 13-point cushion, 30-17, with 8:14 to play.

Bard clawed back into the contest with an 11-2 run by the 5:30 point of the half to make the score 32-28. IC answered with a three from Thompson and basket by Alderete just over a minute later to push things back out to a nine-point spread at 37-28, and with 2:34 to go, Ithaca went back up by 10 on buckets from the same duo, 41-31.

Bard closed out the half on an 8-4 run to trim Ithaca's lead to 45-39 heading into intermission.

Ithaca shot 51.3% (20-for-39) over the opening 20 minutes and led for all but 34 seconds.

Alderete had 12 of his 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Thompson added 11 points on 5-of-9 from the floor.

Early in the second half, Ithaca wasted no time to rebuild a double digit lead with seven straight points within the opening two minutes, 52-39. Thompson and Ezema each scored two points, while Flood hit a three.

The disparity would fluctuate between eight and 13 points for the next 10 minutes until a Sikoryak layup gave IC a 74-59 lead with 7:38 to go in the contest.

Bard trimmed the difference down to five points with 17 seconds remaining, 85-80, but the deficit was too much to overcome as Ithaca went on to win, 87-83.

Ithaca finished the evening at 49.3% (34-for-69) from the field and dished out 19 assists. The Bombers also forced 17 turnovers, which led to 16 points.

The Raptors outrebounded IC, 52-38, including 23 on the offensive end, but that led to just 19 second-chance points.

The Bombers wrap up their regular season tomorrow afternoon against Vassar at 4 p.m.