ITHACA, N.Y. - The Ithaca College men's basketball team beat the Susquehanna River Hawks 84-67 on Nov. 29 in Ben Light Gymnasium thanks to double-digit points from four Bombers.
 
Logan Wendell tallied 24 points for Ithaca, followed by Luka Radovich with 20, Zach Warech with 13 and George Sikoryak III with 12. Warech also collected six rebounds, two steals and a block. Wendell grabbed five boards followed by Liam Spellman and Radovich each with four. 
 
Ithaca got into it right from the jump, winning the tip and scoring within the first 30 seconds of play thanks to a layup from Wendell. The Bombers and River Hawks went head-to-head for the next two minutes before back-to-back three pointers from Wendell and Warech to take an 8-4 lead. However, the lead didn't last long after a Susquehanna three-pointer and layup from the Riverhawks tied things up at 9-9.
 
Things didn't stay tied up for long thanks to a Radovich three-pointer with just over 16 minutes left in the first half. Both teams went through a brief dry spell for the next minute before the River Hawks scored a layup to close the lead to just one-point, but it did not last long yet again as another Radovich jumper put the Bombers up 14-11 with 15 minutes left in the first half.
 
The Bombers stayed hot for the next two minutes adding 10 more points to their lead and only allowing two from Susquehanna. Both teams went through another short dry spell before the River Hawks broke the tension with a couple of free throws and two layups for Ithaca from Jack Stern. Both teams played strong defense for a couple more scoreless series down-and-back when Radovich scored a three-pointer at the bottom of the eighth minute to give the Bombers a 10-point lead with 30-20 on the scoreboard.
 
Both teams scored a few times before Susquehanna took the first timeout of the game with 6:18 on the clock and 34-22 on the scoreboard. The Bombers and River Hawks each had their turns offensively before Warech drained two three-point shots and Wendell added a layup.

Susquehanna put five more points on the scoreboard in the following two minutes. Ithaca and Susquehanna continued to play tough and progressively more physical before the first half ended with an Ithaca 11-point lead with 48-37 on the scoreboard.
 
Despite going into the second half trailing, the River Hawks scored back-to-back layups to tighten the gap to 48-41. Warech put one in on a foul shot for the Bombers before adding a block on the other end of the court, but Susquehanna scored yet again on the next run to continue to close the gap. With just over 17 minutes left in the game, Sikoryak added a floater to put the Bombers up 51-43.
 
After a steal from Sikoryak and a smooth passing series with Wendell and Spellman, Spellman added another layup for the Bombers. After a few close shots that just didn't fall his way at the start of the half, Radovich added another layup to his stats, putting Ithaca up 55-43 before the Riverhawks took their first timeout of the half.
 
After the timeout, Wendell added a quick jumper for the Bombers. He followed up with two more layups before the Bombers used their first timeout of the second half with 12:33 on the clock and a 61-47 lead. Ithaca played some tough team defense before the River Hawks sent the ball out of bounds, giving the Bombers another offensive chance and Andrew Geschickter his first three-pointer of the game.
 
The Bombers and River Hawks went head-to-head yet again for a few scrappy series up and down the court, but it still wasn't quite enough to stop Ithaca as they went into the last eight minutes of play with a 67-53 lead.
 
Thanks to back-to-back layups from Wendell and Radovich, the Bombers increased their lead yet again to 71-55. A sleek behind-the-back pass from Spellman to Wendell in the right corner of the court set him up for a wide open three-point shot just after the sixth minute. Wendell continued his hot streak onto the foul line going two-for-two and give Ithaca an 18-point lead going into the last five minutes of play. There were few scoring opportunities for the River Hawks in the remainder of the game despite one last jumper in the last 13 seconds of the game.

Ithaca returns to action this Friday, December 2 for a 7:30 p.m. Liberty League matchup against Vassar in Ben Light Gymnasium.