ITHACA, N.Y. - Going into this matchup, the Ithaca College men's basketball team was officially knocked out of the running for getting bid into the Liberty League playoffs after their tough loss to Bard. However, they returned to Ben Light Gymnasium this afternoon for their final game of the 2023-2024 season and to celebrate senior day.
 
Despite being knocked out of the tournament, the Bombers came to compete in their final Liberty League contest against Vassar College. In the Bombers first Liberty League game of the season, they defeated the Brewers 76-72 on their home court. Now back on South Hill they were hoping to sweep the Brewers to end their season on a high note.
 
Although their season had been cut short after yesterday's game, Ithaca still had something to fight for as they were celebrating their four seniors this afternoon. Andrew Geschickter, Noah Downing, Triston Wennersten and Blake Haber.
 
At the start of the first half the Brewers offense took off running, quickly putting up 11 points to Ithaca's lone basket from Geschickter in the first four minutes. As Vassar's lead grew the Bombers continued fighting with three pointers from Wennersten and Logan Wendell as well as a layup from Evan Cabral. Despite the Bombers efforts from numerous contributors the Brewers maintained the lead for the entire 20 minutes with their largest lead being 14 points. Going into halftime Ithaca was trailing 41-29.
 
The Bombers came into the second half with vengeance scoring 10 points within the first three minutes. Now only down by four points the Bombers were back in the competition. Their offense finally clicked and was on a roll slowly closing in on the Brewers lead. With a three pointer from Geschickter Ithaca took the lead 51-49 for the first time in the game with 13:36 left.
 
The remainder of the game was a nail biter as the lead constantly switched back and forth between both teams. With only 1:18 left, the Brewers led 77-76, leaving the Bombers with just enough time to come back. However, Vassar's Fitzgerald sunk a jump shot to bring their lead to 79-76. Wendell was quick to respond for Ithaca, making two good free throughs to narrow down the game once again to a one-point difference. Regardless of the Bombers endless fight they fell short to the Brewers by one point with the final score being 79-78.
 
Wendell and Wennersten highlighted the offense both scoring a total of 22 points. Other key contributors of the day included first year Alex Penders with 15 points and Geschickter with seven.
 
Ithaca's final record for the 2023-2024 season was 12-13 overall and 7-11 in the Liberty League.