ITHACA, N.Y. - In the final seconds of a game that saw the Ithaca College men's basketball team nearly give up multiple sizable leads to the Vassar College Brewers, the Bombers had a chance to ice the game with a critical one-and-one free throw situation. Sophomore guard
Thomas McKiernan was already having a career game, 18 points, seven offensive rebounds and four assists and it was seemingly destined that he would be the one to ice the game with two clutch free throws, putting the Bombers up for good 76-73, wrapping the regular season up with a win.
Despite a 1-5 start to the regular season, the Bombers entered this contest with the Brewers with the opportunity to defend their Liberty League tournament title solidified. They lost their first game of Liberty League play to the Brewers on the road, dropping the contest by a score of 88-85. Now, in the Liberty League regular season finale, the Bombers still had seeding implications to fight for, as well as looking to avoid ending the season on a three-game skid.
The Bombers started the game off with a 3-pointer from McKiernan, assisted by junior forward
Matthew Zenker. The Bombers remained hot from behind the arc throughout the early going of the contest, with Zenker connecting on four shots from deep in the first ten minutes of the game, with the penultimate triple leading to a Vassar timeout and giving the Bombers an early 22-15 lead halfway through the half.
Despite being down by as much as nine points in the first, the Brewers were the ones who entered the locker room with a lead. Sophomore forward Parker Neuenhaus nearly matched his previous career-high in points of 23 in the first half. The Bombers had no answer for the 6-foot-9-inch bruiser in the paint, as Neuenhaus scored 34 points, with nearly all of them coming from the inside. Neuenhaus ended the first half with an assist, dishing it out to sophomore guard Will Greogry for a 3-point shot to end the half, putting the Brewers up 41-37.
The Bombers did not let the slow finish to the first half deter them, holding their ground coming out of the locker room. McKiernan hit a triple at the 18:10 mark to put the Bombers back in front 42-41. After this shot, the game went back-and-forth for the following few minutes before the Bombers were able to get a huge contribution from first-year guard
Nick Lemmond. Lemmond has found his footing in the latter half of the season, as this game was third time in four contests that he scored double digits. He knocked down two triples nearly halfway through the half, giving Ithaca a 61-55 advantage.
The Bombers continued to control the momentum, with a jumper from junior guard
Jaylon O'Neal at the 8:17 mark giving the Bombers a 69-57 lead. However, after a layup from junior guard
Evan Cabral at the 6:38 mark, the Bombers only scored one more field goal the rest of the contest.
The Brewers continued to creep closer, and after a Neuenhaus layup with 39 seconds remaining, the lead was down to two. After an Ithaca timeout in the frontcourt, the Bombers continued to collapse, as a Cabral inbound pass to O'Neal in the backcourt was intercepted by reigning Liberty League player of the year Shea Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was eventually fouled and only knocked down one free throw.
After O'Neal missed a free throw on the other end, the Brewers had a chance to take the lead. Despite Neuenhaus having a career game, the Brewers opted to go to Fitzgerald in the final seconds. This proved to be costly as Fitzgerald missed a jumper on the elbow, and the ball went out of bounds off the Brewers.
After McKiernan knocked down the two clutch free throws for his 20th point of the contest, the Bombers were able to head into the postseason with momentum, solidifying the fifth seed in the Liberty League tournament. The Bombers will head north to take on the four seeded St. Lawrence University on Tuesday, Feb. 24. The Bombers beat the Saints twice in the regular season, with the most recent contest being a 75-72 victory on Feb. 6.
