ITHACA, N.Y. - Coming off a strong road win against Carnegie Mellon to open the New Year, the Ithaca Men's Basketball team pulled off a Liberty League victory against Union College, 86-80, on Friday evening inside Ben Light Gymnasium. Ithaca is now 7-3 on the season and 2-1 in the Liberty League.
It was a slow start for both teams as only two points were scored in the opening two minutes of action, but Union would get out to an early 7-2 lead. The Bombers would answer with a run as Triston Wennersten drained a long two along with threes from Cole Wissink and Bryce Bleibtrey to put IC up, 14-9, with just under 12 minutes remaining in the half.
Union had some quick scores to bring the Garnet Chargers back into the game at 14-13. A long three by Union regained the advantage at 16-14, but Logan Wendell drained a three for the Bombers to give them the lead back, 19-16.
However, Union's size in the paint dominated the Bombers, putting them back up 20-19. Wendell drained another three to put Ithaca up 22-20 on the ensuing possession. The momentum of the game shifted after an Ithaca timeout with a Wendell and-one and a layup by Wennersten to increase IC's lead to 30-20 with 5:36 to go. Over the final few minutes of action, the Bombers drilled four 3-pointers to establish a 14-point edge at 44-30 with 50 seconds left and Union scored the final basket of the half to account for the 44-32 score.
Wennersten scored 17 of his game-high 27 points in the first half as he went 7-for-11 in the opening 20 minutes and finished the evening 12-for-17 with seven rebounds and three steals.
It was a much different feel in the second half compared to the first half in terms of foul shooting. There were a combined three free throw attempts in the first half, but IC and Union took 44 foul shots in the final 20 minutes of play.
The Bombers would go up by as many as 17 points in the second half at 63-46 with just under 11 minutes on the clock, but Union fought all the way back to a 71-66 difference with 4:02 left. Momentum changed at that point as the Garnet Chargers were whistled for a personal foul and assessed a technical and Wendell made all four attempts at the line to put IC back ahead by nine points. Wendell would hit two more at the stripe on the next possession to give the Bombers a 77-66 edge with 2:53 remaining, but Union once again battled back to get to within three at 78-75 with 1:25 to go. IC would go 6-for-8 at the free throw line the rest of the way to come away with the 86-80 win.
Wendell finished with 25 points as he went 7-for-12 overall and 8-for-9 at the line, to go along with six assists. Andrew Geschickter added eight points and three steals, while Evan Cabral chipped in five points and five assists. Wissink and Alex Penders also concluded the night with five points each.
The Bombers welcome 10-1 Hobart to Ben Light Gymnasium tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. The Statesmen were undefeated heading into their matchup at RIT on Friday evening, but fell to the Tigers, 77-76.
