ONEONTA, NY - Visiting Ithaca had a 14-point halftime lead and led throughout the second half as they defeated the Hartwick men's basketball team 79-67 on Friday night at Lambros Arena in the Empire 8 semifinals. Ithaca now moves on to play Nazareth who defeated Stevens in the first semifinal game of the night, 74-71.
The Hawks were led by Jared Suderley (Newport, NY/West Canada Valley) who scored 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting and also pulled down 12 rebounds. Anthony Keane (Staten Island, NY/Monsignor Farrell) had 13 points, six assists, five rebounds, and three steals. Mike Geisser (East Hanover, NJ/Hanover Park) contributed 12 points and seven rebounds. Chris Ryder (Port Washington, NY/Port Washington) also had 12 points and grabbed four rebounds.
Tom Sweeney led the Bombers with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting. Jordan Marcus contributed 14 points, Andrei Ozmetel chipped in 13 points, and Sean Rossi scored 10 points and dished out seven assists.
Ithaca scored the first two baskets of the game to go up 4-0 but the Hawks would respond with back-to-back three-pointers from Ryder and Suderley to pull ahead 6-4. After exchanging buckets, the Bombers would go up 12-8 on layups from Frank Mitchell and Sweeney before the Hawks pulled even with a layup and two free throws from Suderley.
The teams would exchange baskets back and forth for the next five minutes of play before a 7-0 Ithaca run gave them a 27-20 lead with 7:14 left in the first. After Suderley converted the traditional three-point play to get Hartwick to within four points of tying the game at 6:04, Ithaca would embark on a 13-3 run over the rest of half to go up 40-26 at the break.
The Bombers led throughout the second half but the Hawks would fight to stay in it. After the Bombers hit a three-pointer at 14:53 to go up 51-39, Hartwick went on a 6-0 spurt to cut the Ithaca lead to 51-45.
After Sweeney hit two free throws, Geisser nailed a three to make it a five-point game, 53-48 with exactly 12 minutes left. Despite the hot shooting from the Bombers, Hartwick would not let up and only trailed 68-61 with just over three and a half minutes left on the clock. It would be, however, as close as they could get as the Bombers proved to be too much in the end.
Ithaca shot nearly 44% from the floor compared to Hartwick's 42.6%. 'Wick could not connect on its three-point shots as it converted 20.8% to Ithaca's 32.1%.
Hartwick led in rebounds 41-38. The Bombers capitalized on 14 Hawk turnovers by scoring 21 points compared to nine points that the Hawks scored off Ithaca's turnovers.
'Wick lost for only the third time this season and is 23-3 overall with two of those losses coming at the hands of the Bombers. As the #1 team in the East Region, the Hawks hope to secure one of 19 at-large bids when the NCAA announces its tournament selections on Monday, February 27 at 12 p.m.
