ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team wrapped up its 2020 regular season with a convincing, 102-64, Liberty League victory over Bard College on Senior Day inside Ben Light Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon. Ithaca extends its winning streak to eight in a row to improve its record to 20-5 overall and 15-3 in the Liberty League. The Bombers advance to the Liberty League Championship and will host St. Lawrence University at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 25.

Prior to the start of the game, Ithaca recognized its three seniors – Sebastian Alderete, Jake Mitchell and Riley Thompson – playing in their final regular season home game. Ithaca has won 60 games over the past four seasons and will make its third postseason appearance next week.

Bard gave the Bombers everything they could handle for a majority of the first half. The lead changed four times over the opening 3:22 of the contest, but after a layup from Alderete, Ithaca took control of the lead for the next 10 minutes.

The Raptors knotted the contest at 28-28 with 6:20 left in the half, but Ithaca went on a 14-3 run over a 3:40 stretch to build a 42-31 advantage with under two minutes remaining. During that run, Thompson and sophomore Alex Barron each had six points, while sophomore Skylar Sinon scored the other two points.

IC would then head into halftime with a 44-33 lead as Sinon drilled a pull-up jumper above the foul line with seven second to go for the final basket of the half.

Out of the break, it was all Bombers as IC opened with a 24-7 spurt to establish a 28-point cushion at 68-40 at the 11:42 mark. Ithaca connected on five 3-pointers during the run and five different Bombers scored. The Bombers would go on to score 58 points in the second half.

With 6:04 left in the contest, Ithaca reached its first 30-point lead as sophomore Tommy Carver connected from distance to give the Bombers an 86-54 edge. Junior Lucas Joshi sent the Bombers above the century mark with a 3-point in the waning seconds of the contest to account for the final score of 102-64, which happened to be IC's largest lead of the game.

Thompson paced IC with 15 points, while sophomore Zach Warech scored 14 points with four rebounds and four assists in 20 minutes of action. Sinon (11 points), Alderete (10 points) and freshman Liam Spellman (10 points) all reached double figures in the win. Sinon added four assists, four rebounds and four steals, while Alderete pulled down seven rebounds. Spellman also grabbed seven boards.

Carver filled up the stat sheet in nine minutes on the floor as he scored seven points and dished out four assists. Junior Cooper Macklin finished the afternoon with six points, seven rebounds and four assists, while sophomore George Sikoryak III chipped in five points and five rebounds. Barron concluded the afternoon with eight points and five rebounds.

IC went 37-for-76 (48.7-percent) from the field and 14-for-41 (34.1%) from 3-point range. Ithaca also converted 77.8% of its free throw attempts (14-for-18) and outrebounded the Raptors, 52-30.

If the Bombers are victorious on Tuesday, they will travel to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for the remainder of the tournament on February 29 and March 1.