The men’s basketball team had its season come to an end Saturday after a 77–71 loss to DeSales University in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Ben Light Gymnasium.

Despite losing in the first round of the Empire 8 tournament to Nazareth College, the Blue and Gold still received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament along with a first-round bye and home court advantage.

The South Hill squad once again had its trigger-happy game plan foiled as the team shot 37.7 percent from the field and shot 24.4 percent from beyond the arc hitting 10 of 41 three-pointers.

Head Coach Jim Mullins said the Bombers’ shooting performance was a combination of good defense from DeSales and misfiring by Ithaca.

“They’re one of the top defensive teams in the country and we knew that coming in,” Mullins said. “There’s the old adage ‘you live by the three and you die by the three,’ and we certainly died by it tonight.”

Ithaca started strong in the first half leading by as many as ten points. However, the Bulldogs quickly picked up their defense and shut down Bomber sharpshooter senior guard Sean Burton.

“They were doubling hard which we’ve seen from every team this year, especially in the second half of the year,” Burton said. “It was nothing I haven’t seen before. My shots just weren’t falling like the rest of the team.”

DeSales junior guard Darnell Braswell led the Bulldogs with 27 points and 13 rebounds. Braswell also had the undesirable job of guarding Burton. DeSales Head Coach Scott Coval said his point guard did a good job on defense under the circumstances.

“We couldn’t guard everyone because we had to commit two guys to Sean Burton,” Coval said.

With the loss, the careers two of Ithaca’s best all-time players ¬— Burton and senior center Jeff Bostic — came to an end. Burton said it was difficult to recall the good memories of this time on South Hill coming off the loss but recognized how meaningful his four years were.

“You have to keep in mind how special it’s been these past four years and this year especially,” Burton said. “It’s hard right now to think about all the good memories coming off this bad loss.”

DeSales will advance to the Sweet Sixteen to face University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on March 13 in Lancaster, Pa. This is DeSales’ second-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament and Braswell said the team is hoping to continue further.

“We’re a part of history and we’ll keep making history if we keep winning,” he said.