CANTON, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball fell short in their first round Liberty League playoff matchup at St. Lawrence, losing 72-64, in Canton on Tuesday night. With the loss, Ithaca finished the season with a 10-16 record.

In this final game of the year, junior forward Matthew Zenker led the way with 25 points and eight rebounds, while junior guard Evan Cabral had his best game since returning from injury with 18 points off the bench. Ithaca struggled to shut down forward Adam Dudzinski, who led St. Lawrence with 26 points and nine boards.

St. Lawrence scored the first eight points of the game to take a commanding lead in the early minutes. It didn't stop there, as the Saints took a double-digit lead at 15-3 as Dudzinski hit a three-pointer to cap off a frantic minute of action. The Bombers parlayed four unanswered Zenker points into a 7-0 run of their own to cut it back down to five, but Aidan Phelan hit one from deep for St. Lawrence to make it 18-10 headed into a timeout.

The Saints stayed hot out of the break, scoring the first four points inside. The threes begin to work for both teams in the following minutes, as Nick Lemmond and Zenker hit a pair for Ithaca, but Dan Anderson answered with one for St. Lawrence, making it 25-16 headed into the next timeout with eight to go in the half. Tommy McMahon hit a pair of free throws right out of the break to bring it back into double digits.

Zenker continued to find success inside with a pair of layups to cut it back to a seven-point game, but St. Lawrence did not make it easy for the Bombers to claw back into the game. The teams continued to exchanged buckets over the next couple minutes before a scoring drought set in, keeping the St. Lawrence lead at 32-25 headed into the final three minutes before halftime.

After a Dudzinski free throw, the Bombers began to gain some substantial ground with a 6-2 run to close out the half down just 35-31. Zenker closed out the half leading the way with 14 points.

St. Lawrence slowly built back their lead early in the second half. They switched their approach slightly compared to the first half, taking more shots from inside the arc, where they scored each of their first 18 points out of the break. Dudzinski was responsible for 10 of those points, reaching 20 on the game and leading St. Lawrence back into a double-digit lead. As the Bombers called timeout with 12 minutes to go, St. Lawrence led 53-42. 

Ithaca cut it back to nine on the back of a pair of threes by Yoav Regev and Cabral, but the Saints followed it up with a 7-0 run to secure their largest lead of the game with under eight to play and did not look back from there. Zenker continued to hit shots for the Bombers down the stretch, but St. Lawrence's double-digit lead held until there was under a minute to go. Despite a last-minute push by Ithaca, St. Lawrence held on for a comfortable victory.