ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team increased its winning streak to four straight games on Tuesday evening, January 10, as IC went on the road to defeat RIT, 97-72, inside Clark Gymnasium. The Bombers are now 8-4 on the season and 4-1 in the Liberty League.
IC got off to a hot start, connecting on its first three shots of the game (all 3-pointers), to take an early 9-4 lead.
Luka Radovich made two of them, while
Liam Spellman sunk the other three-ball.
That ended up being the theme of the night for the Bombers, as they finished the contest with 16 made 3-pointers on 30 attempts (53.3%), holding a plus-12 advantage over the Tigers from beyond the arc. IC went 10-for-16 in the first half to finish the opening 20 minutes with 51 points and made six more in the second half to cap off a season-high 97-point outburst. The Bombers also scored 21 points off turnovers and received 42 points from their bench.
Thirteen of the 14 players who played on Tuesday evening scored at least one point. Radovich led the way with 17 points with seven rebounds as he shot 6-for-11 overall and 5-for-8 from distance.
Logan Wendell added 12 points, while
George Sikoryak III and
Skylar Sinon each contributed 11 points. Sikoryak also dished out six assists.
Triston Wennersten reached double figures as well with 10 points and six rebounds in just 13 minutes of action.
Zach Warech went 3-for-4 from 3-point range to conclude his evening with nine points, while Spellman and
Andrew Geschickter chipped in six points apiece.
Noah Downing,
Jack Stern and
Gavin Schauder all scored four points.
Cole Wissink and
Bryce Bleibtrey accounted for the final three points for IC.
After the quicky shooting barrage from the Bombers, RIT battled back to tie the game at 9-9 at the 17:24 mark and then took the lead, 11-10, just 30 seconds later. After a three by Warech on the next possession made it a 13-11 score, the Bombers never relinquished the lead for the rest of the contest.
RIT would knot things up again at 15-15, but Sinon hit a transition 3-pointer to jumpstart a 12-2 run over the next 1:06 to establish the first double-digit lead of the game at 27-17. The Tigers would pull back to within five points, 29-24, at the 7:24 mark but the Bombers would outscore RIT, 22-13 the rest of the half to take a 14-point lead into intermission, 51-37.
It was a similar start to the second half for Ithaca as Wendell and Radovich nailed 3-pointers over the opening 1:21 increase IC's advantage to 22 points at 59-37. That lead grew to 27 points by the 16:56 mark on a Sikoryak 3-pointer for the largest disparity of the night for the Bombers until Wennersten scored on a layup with 3:45 remaining to make it a 30-point ballgame at 94-64.
The Bombers are home this weekend against St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Friday's game vs. St. Lawrence begins at 7:30 p.m., while Clarkson tips at 4 p.m.
