BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team improved to 5-2 on the season as it opened the 2020 portion of its season with an 88-83 victory at Moravian College as part of the Steel Club Classic on Saturday afternoon. Eight different players scored at least six points for the Bombers in the win, including double-digits from seniors Sebastian Alderete and Jake Mitchell and sophomore Skylar Sinon, who finished with a team-high 21 points.

Moravian controlled play for the opening two minutes as the Greyhounds built a 7-3 lead by the 18:41 mark, but that was their largest lead of the game. The Bombers answered with five straight points to go on top, 8-7, and maintained their lead for the remainder of the first half and nearly three minutes into the second period.

Late in the first half, Sinon drilled back-to-back 3-pointers at the 4:27 and 3:55 marks to push Ithaca's advantage out to 10 points at 38-28, which was IC's first double-digit edge of the contest. Junior Bryan Karl then followed up with another 3-pointer just over 30 seconds later to match the Bombers' largest lead of the matchup at 41-28.

Moravian chipped away over the final three-plus minutes to pull to within a 46-40 difference at halftime.

Over the opening 20 minutes, Ithaca shot 15-for-32 overall (46.9%) and 9-for-16 (56.3%) from 3-point range.

Alderete scored eight of his 17 points in the first half, while freshman Jack Stern chipped in seven points.

In the second half, Sinon scored 15 points on 5-of-8 from the floor, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range.

With 17:13 to go in the game, Moravian regained the lead, 47-46, on a 3-pointer. Both teams would then go scoreless for more than three minutes until a Greyhound bucket at 13:51 to extend their lead to three at 49-46.

The two foes traded leads over the next three-plus minutes until Alderete nailed a jumper to give IC the edge for good at 57-55. That basket sparked a 16-4 Bombers run (71-59) up to 7:04 left on the clock. Moravian did not go down without a fight, however, as the Greyhounds came all the way back to within a point at 81-80 with 2:21 to go, but three points apiece from Mitchell and sophomore George Sikoryak III put the game away for the Bombers.

IC will wrap up the Steel Club Classic tomorrow evening with a 5:30 p.m. tip against Montclair State.