ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team started the 2026-27 season on a strong note as the Bombers took down visiting Cortland, 77-62, inside Ben Light Gymnasium on Tuesday evening. Highlighting the evening was
Evan Cabral, who tallied his 1000th career point in just his 78th contest.
Cabral entered the game just three points shy of the milestone and surpassed the mark with a layup at the 5:51 mark of the first half.
Ithaca never trailed in the game and pulled down 24 offensive rebounds, which led to 23 second chance points. IC finished plus-nine in rebounds with a 48-39 difference over the Red Dragons and held Cortland to 38.7% shooting from the field.
The Bombers jumped out to a 5-0 lead behind a layup from
Chris Leysath and 3-pointer from
Matthew Zenker less than two minutes into the game. Cortland then posted the only tie of the contest at 14-14 at the 12:34 mark.
IC then used a 6-0 run over the next four minutes on three points from
Jaylon O'Neal and a 3-pointer from
Colin Huang to build its largest lead of the game at that time. The remainder of the half stayed between a two- and six-point advantage for the Bombers as IC went into the locker room with a 37-32 lead.
Ithaca came out strong in the second half behind five points from O'Neal and a pair of makes at the line by Cabral to go ahead by 12 at 44-32 less than a minute into the half.
After a 3-pointer from Cortland made the score 44-35,
Leonidas Vlogianitis hit a three-ball at the other end of the floor to put IC back up by double digits at 47-35 with 18:19 and the Bombers' lead remained over 10 points for the next 11-plus minutes.
Cortland trimmed the deficit back to nine at 63-54 with 6:46 to go, but Ithaca closed out the game on a 14-8 run, which concluded with a 3-pointer from Cabral with just 1:06 left on the clock.
Zenker led the offensive charge with 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting with six rebounds and two blocks. O'Neal finished the game with 14 points, eight rebounds and two steals, while Cabral added 11 points, five boards, four assists and four steals.
Huang chipped in nine points, four rebounds and three steals, while Vlogianitis chipped in seven points and five rebounds.
Ithaca heads to Maritime College on Sunday, November 15 for a 1 p.m. matchup.
