CLINTON, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team traveled to Hamilton College for a midweek non-conference matchup on November 14 and the Bombers came away with a 74-67 victory. Ithaca is now 2-0 on the season. IC and Hamilton have played 23 times since 1981 and the Continentals won 18 of the first 19 contests, but the Bombers have taken each of the past three.
The Bombers scored the first basket of the game on a jumper by
Logan Wendell, but IC would fall behind for the rest of the first half until
Cole Wissink drilled a 3-pointer with 1:28 to go.
Evan Cabral then scored IC's next four points to make it 32-29, but the Continentals were fouled on a 3-point attempt at the buzzer and made all three shots at the line to knot the game at 32-32 heading to halftime.
Ithaca would begin the second half with five straight points behind a bucket from Wendell and a 3-pointer by
Triston Wennersten, but Hamilton would go on an 11-2 over the next three minutes to take a 43-39 lead with 15:34 to go.
After a back-and-forth battle for the next seven minutes, the Bombers regained a three-point lead at 52-49 on a pair of free throws by Wendell, but Hamilton answered with eight straight points to build a five-point edge at 57-52 with under seven minutes to play.
The Continentals grew their lead to seven points at the 5:16 mark, 62-55, but it was all Bombers from there, as IC closed out the game on a 19-5 run to capture the 74-67 win.
Over the final five minutes, Ithaca forced four turnovers and scored off all those opportunities. Wendell scored eight of his team-high 20 points during that run as he finished the game 5-of-15 overall and 8-of-10 at the line. Wennersten added 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting and scored five points during the final run. Wennersten also pulled down seven rebounds in the win.
Wissink chipped in 11 points on 5-of-9 from the floor and seven rebounds, while
Andrew Geschickter added eight points.
IC shot just 30.6-percent in the first half but responded by going 14-for-32 (43.8%) in the second half and made 11 free throws over the final 20 minutes of action.
Ithaca heads to Bridgewater State this weekend for two games.
