ITHACA, N.Y. - This Friday evening's Liberty League matchup between Ithaca College men's basketball and St. Lawrence was a battle from the first whistle until the very end of the game. Despite the Bombers undying efforts, they fell to the Saints, 65-60. IC is now 11-11 on the season and 6-9 in the Liberty League.
Coming off a tough one-point loss to RIT this past Tuesday, Ithaca came into this Liberty League matchup hungry for a conference win. This hunger drove the Bombers offense to make the first basket with a jump shot from senior
Triston Wennersten about 2:00 minutes into the first half.
However, less than a minute later, the Saints were quick to retaliate, with Andrew Cowan making two free throws and a layup from Aidan Macaulay. Wennersten took control of the Bombers offense, scoring all seven total points in the first five minutes of the half.
Aidan Holmes joined Wennersten on the stats sheet, making three good free throws to put Ithaca up 10-9 with 13:16 remaining.
Ithaca continued their offensive groove with scoring opportunities coming from all across the court with points from
Evan Cabral,
Alex Penders,
Bryce Bleibtrey, and
Andrew Geschickter. With their collective efforts, Ithaca led 21-12 with 8:46 left on the clock.
St. Lawrence would not take no for an answer as its offense answered, narrowing Ithaca's lead to 21-17 with a little over 5:00 in the half to go. Despite the Saints efforts to close the scoring gap, the Bombers maintained the lead going into halftime, 30-23.
Entering the second half, both teams were not backing down from the fight. The Saints were able to respond to the Bombers first half efforts within seven minutes to take back the lead. Now trailing behind 40-36, the Bombers offense had 12:52 to regain control of the game. With St. Lawrence's offense rolling, it was Cabral who was able to interrupt their back-to-back scoring chances to put the Bombers only four points behind.
It was a back-and-forth battle up until the very last minute. With 1:01 on the clock, Holmes sunk a jump shot to put Ithaca just one point behind St. Lawrence at 59-58. Not more than ten seconds later did Cabral drive to the basket for a layup, securing a one-point lead for the Bombers with 0:51 left. However, Adam Dudzinksi was fouled and made both free throws for the Saints to regain the lead at 61-60. The Saints sunk four more free throws to bring the game to an end with a score of 65-60.
Holmes was IC's bright spot offensively with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting, while Geschickter added 13 points off the bench.
The Bombers made seven more baskets than the Saints in the game, 24-17, but IC was unable to overcome the 23-to-4 disparity in made free throws.
The Bombers will return to Ben Light Gymnasium tomorrow, Saturday February 10
th, at 4 p.m. to face Clarkson University in a Liberty League game.
