At the start of the season, the men’s basketball team wanted redemption from an early exit from last season’s Empire 8 tournament. To ensure the tournament would return to Ben Light Gymnasium, the Bombers tore through their conference schedule, going 15–1 against the Empire 8.

And they didn’t do it lightly either. In 15 conference victories, the Blue and Gold’s average margin of victory was 17.27 points. Finishing three games ahead of second-place Rochester Institute of Technology, the conference tournament is returning to Ithaca for the second year in a row.

Junior center Tom Brown said because the South Hill squad has dominated its conference schedule, the team is poised to make a playoff run.

“We’re going to have a lot of momentum because we don’t think anyone in this league can play with us,” Brown said. “We’ve pretty much blown out everybody in the league, so we have a lot of confidence going in.”

Though the final results would show Ithaca was the dominant team throughout the season, the Bombers were in second place for the majority of the year, behind Rochester Institute of Technology. The Tigers were undefeated against the Empire 8 until a Feb. 10 loss to St. John Fisher College.

The one blemish on Ithaca’s record this season was against RIT on Jan. 11 in Rochester. Sophomore guard Nate Korinchak sunk a controversial buzzer beater from close to half-court with the game tied in the final seconds to beat the Bombers 87–84.

Though the Blue and Gold had already clinched home-court advantage for the tournament, graduate student guard Scott Ruffrage said he wanted revenge against the Tigers to prove Ithaca’s conference supremacy. The South Hill squad had to wait until Sunday to get that chance, beating RIT 101–74 behind Ruffrage’s first career double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.

“We felt we got [robbed] a little bit on that questionable call up at their place,” Ruffrage said. “We’ve had this circled since Jan. 11, and it was great to come out and play well today and get a victory.”

As the No. 1 seed in the tournament, the Bombers will face No. 4 Nazareth College in the first round. The Blue and Gold have dominated the Golden Flyers in their two regular season meetings, winning 122–90 Jan. 9 at home and 113–86 Friday in Rochester.

As the regular season comes to a close, the South Hill squad has been able to stay at the top of its game, improving in areas where it was weak at the beginning of the year. At the start of the season, there were questions regarding the team’s ability on defense. Head Coach Jim Mullins said he has been impressed by the effort put forth on the defensive side of the ball down the stretch.

“You get to a certain point with a veteran club offensively when they’re clicking and sharing the ball that almost nothing should surprise you,” he said. “Therefore the only areas that you can improve in are the effort things — defense and rebounding.”

RIT will provide the biggest challenge on the glass for the Blue and Gold as they lead the conference with a +5.7 rebounding margin on the season. However, the Bombers showed they can take over the boards even without injured center Jeff Bostic, out-rebounding the Tigers 47–32 Sunday.

Brown said if the South Hill squad puts forth the same effort that it showed during the weekend, it will have no trouble in the conference tournament.

“Coach has said, ‘If you play like that, that’s how you have to play for the rest of the season,’” Brown said. “Every game from here on out is real important. You have to play like every game means a lot.”