CANTON, N.Y. – Despite an off-shooting night, the Ithaca College men's basketball team managed to string together enough baskets late in the game, with a compliment of some tough defense, to come away with a 67-63 Liberty League victory at St. Lawrence University on Friday evening. With the win, Ithaca improves to 9-3 overall and 5-1 in the Liberty League, while St. Lawrence falls to 3-9 and 1-5.

The Bombers shot just 28-for-72 (38.9-percent) from the field but went 17-for-38 (44.7%) in the second half. IC also connected on just 3-of-30 from 3-point range and 8-for-15 at the free throw line but held the Saints to 24-for-66 (36.4%) overall and 3-for-14 (21.4%) from distance in the win. IC also forced 21 turnovers, which led to 17 points.

Most importantly, the Bombers made six of their final 10 shots of the game, which spanned 6:06 of game time to pull off the win. On the defensive end, Ithaca recorded 15 steals and seven blocked shots in the contest.

IC trailed St. Lawrence, 55-54, with 6:24 left in the contest. Senior Sebastian Alderete put in a layup just 18 seconds later to spark a 6-0 run in a minute of action to give the Bombers a five-point cushion at 60-55 with five minutes remaining.

After a pair of makes for the Saints at the line cut the difference to 60-57, senior Riley Thompson scored on a break to reestablish the five-point lead with 4:00 to play.

The Saints would come back to within a point at 64-63 with 1:33 to go, but a made baseline jumper by junior Bryan Karl at the 1:08 mark made the score 66-63.

St. Lawrence would have multiple opportunities from there to tie the game, but with less than 15 seconds left, sophomore Skylar Sinon came up with a huge blocked (credited as a steal) as a Saints player was in the process of shooting a 3-pointer at the top of the key to seal the win. Thompson would then go 1-for-2 at the line to give Ithaca the victory.

Ithaca got off to a slow start on Friday, as the Bombers found themselves in a 17-6 hole with 12:42 left in the first half. The Bombers kept plugging away and eventually took a 23-22 lead with 3:22 remaining and wound up taking a 29-26 edge into intermission.

The entire second half was played within a possession until IC built its 60-55 advantage with 6:06 on the clock.

Alderete paced the Bombers with 18 points on 9-of-17 shooting with seven rebounds, four assists and four steals, while Thompson finished the night with 15 points and six boards.

Sinon secured six steals with five assists and five points, while freshman Jack Stern added 11 points. Karl and freshman Liam Spellman each scored five points for IC and sophomore Zach Warech chipped in four points and three steals.

The Bombers head to Clarkson University for a 2 p.m. matchup tomorrow. The game was moved up two hours due to the impending winter storm that will come through New York late tomorrow afternoon.