Empire 8

[gobombers15]

Hot start by the Bombers has them leading 45-25 with a shade under 7 mins left in the 1st half. Ithaca is 7-12 from 3-pt range so far. Cruz with 13 and Jordan Marcus with 12 (on 4-4 from 3-pt range). Good start but have to keep it up.

[Caz Bombers]

Ithaca 56, St. Lawrence 39 at halftime.  Cruz, Marcus and Burton in double figures already - IC only shot two free throws in the first half.  Guess that'll happen when you have 20 three-point attempts.

[gobombers15]

The Larries go on a 7-0 run to cut Ithaca's lead to 10, 67-57. Time to let Bostic do some work. He has only 5 attempts and it seems like they all come after offensive rebounds. A guard-oriented offense is great but you can't neglect your 2nd best player.

[gobombers15]

We officially have a game now. Bombers lead down to four, 73-69, 10 mins left.

[gobombers15]

Bombers hang on for the victory, 95-89. The Larries pull to within one, 87-86, on Garrett Sharlow's layup with 2:55 remaining. Sean Burton comes up large when it matters most, scoring 11 of Ithaca's last 13 points to preserve the victory. Burton with 26 pts, 8 assts, 4 rebs. Cruz with 21 pts and 5 rebs, Leahy with 15 pts and 5 rebs. Bostic has 8 pts and 16 rebs, and Jordan Marcus goes for 12 pts, all in the first half.

Larries have five in double figures: Vonnak (17), G. Sharlow (16), J. Sharlow (16), Williams (14), Wopperer (12). Even with IC's late FT's, the Bombers attempted only 14 FT's to SLU's 24 FT's (make your own inferences), many of which came in the 2nd half.

Nice win for the Bombers. Could've been disastrous if they blew a 20-pt first half lead.

[magicman]

Ithaca's 95-89 win over St. Lawrence this afternoon should give them the top ranking in the East region when the NCAA releases them in January. Don't see them relinquishing that spot for quite a while. Barring an upset in early E8 league action, their next toughest test could come against Potsdam St. on Jan. 13th in Ithaca. The Bombers are off until Jan. 2nd when they open up E8 play against Elmira. This is the 1st of 5 league games in 10 days, followed by the Potsdam game 2 days later. Ithaca has already beaten Cortland, Rochester, Oneonta, and St Lawrence, 4 teams that were contenders for the top spot in the East, and did so with road wins in all 4 instances. Could move up a couple of spots in the Top 25 ranking next week

[Bombers798891]

Ithaca's 95-89 win over St. Lawrence this afternoon should give them the top ranking in the East region when the NCAA releases them in January. Don't see them relinquishing that spot for quite a while. Barring an upset in early E8 league action, their next toughest test could come against Potsdam St. on Jan. 13th in Ithaca. The Bombers are off until Jan. 2nd when they open up E8 play against Elmira. This is the 1st of 5 league games in 10 days, followed by the Potsdam game 2 days later. Ithaca has already beaten Cortland, Rochester, Oneonta, and St Lawrence, 4 teams that were contenders for the top spot in the East, and did so with road wins in all 4 instances. Could move up a couple of spots in the Top 25 ranking next week

I'm not ready to live in a world where the Men's BBall team does better than the football team....

Haha. Congrats to the Bombers for the record-breaking run! I'd be more into it if I knew anything about D-III hoops on the whole

[tigerfan2]

RIT fell to 4-3 yesterday, losing 72-66 to Oneonta in the Brodie tourney finals.

Carson with 22 pts. and 19 boards in the final makes the all tourney team along with Scott Young.
RIT is off until January 2 when they host Utica, a game which is the first of 4 straight E8 home games before the Chase starts. Fisher and Ithaca round out that stretch of games.

With the Tigers playing 4 straight on the road after the Chase they really need a good showing in this early year home stand to put themselves in position to make the E8 tourney.

[gobombers15]

In other E8 action yesterday, Hobart knocked off host Elmira, 92-80. And in a minor upset, previously winless Naz knocked off a quality Oswego team, 104-94.

[e8bballfan]

In other E8 action yesterday, Hobart knocked off host Elmira, 92-80. And in a minor upset, previously winless Naz knocked off a quality Oswego team, 104-94.

104-94, sounds like a real defensive battle...

[sjfcards]

Bombers hang on for the victory, 95-89. The Larries pull to within one, 87-86, on Garrett Sharlow's layup with 2:55 remaining. Sean Burton comes up large when it matters most, scoring 11 of Ithaca's last 13 points to preserve the victory. Burton with 26 pts, 8 assts, 4 rebs. Cruz with 21 pts and 5 rebs, Leahy with 15 pts and 5 rebs. Bostic has 8 pts and 16 rebs, and Jordan Marcus goes for 12 pts, all in the first half.

Larries have five in double figures: Vonnak (17), G. Sharlow (16), J. Sharlow (16), Williams (14), Wopperer (12). Even with IC's late FT's, the Bombers attempted only 14 FT's to SLU's 24 FT's (make your own inferences), many of which came in the 2nd half.

Nice win for the Bombers. Could've been disastrous if they blew a 20-pt first half lead.

Man IC can score some points this year. I knew they would be tough to stop with Bostic and Burton, but man they can fill it up.

[sjfcards]

Anybody alive in the land of the Empire 8? Not a lot happening in the world of Division III basketball right now. Does anyone know anything about this St. Mary's team that Fisher is playing in a couple weeks? I know they are ranked, and look to be pretty solid. Any other news out there?

[thebear]

They appear to be huge, multiple 6-7 & above's.

They got hammered (blown out in the 2nd half) by Baruch in the city in their last game, after winning their first 7.

I would guess Fisher should be competitive, Kornaker is an excellent coach, and he will have his troops prepared.

They played Nazareth in their opener, so Rob  has game film and first hand knowledge right across the street.

As usual the east gets no respect, undefeated Ithaca ranked below these guys, who lost to a CUNY team by 20.

Be a nice win for Fisher, the E8, & the region if Fisher were to beat them.

[sjfcards]

Thanks for the update Bear. I hope you are right. Fisher playing teams with size scares me, but hopefully athleticism can win out. I think Fisher needs a win like this to make a statement and say okay we are back. The problem is I don't know if they are really back yet or not. A 3-1 start after last year is nice, especially with some young guys contributing, However, they really haven't beat anyone yet. I think they could use a couple nice home wins in their tourny.

[gobombers15]

Thanks for the update Bear. I hope you are right. Fisher playing teams with size scares me, but hopefully athleticism can win out. I think Fisher needs a win like this to make a statement and say okay we are back. The problem is I don't know if they are really back yet or not. A 3-1 start after last year is nice, especially with some young guys contributing, However, they really haven't beat anyone yet. I think they could use a couple nice home wins in their tourny.

Fisher is about where they should be right now. The loss to DeSales turned out not being as bad as everyone initially thought, as DeSales is currently ranked (#25) and also beat a then-ranked Randolph-Macon. It also turned out that the win over 'Port wasn't as great as everyone thought, since 'Port is terrible, apparently. Fisher now has a chance to make some noise. With a few wins over the holidays and to start the E8 season, Fisher may find itself in the next fan poll (cheap plug alert).

I said at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, I believe Fisher is an E8 Tourney team. I still believe that.