For the second year in a row, Ben Light Gymnasium will hold the women’s basketball Empire 8 Championships. Ithaca College once again earned the right to host with an unblemished 16–0 conference record.

The Bombers were in the same position last season, but they lost in the tournament final to Stevens Institute of Technology. With another regular season title under their belt, the Blue and Gold now have the confidence to continue their run in the postseason.

“It really comes down to playing well in tournament games,” junior Elissa Klie said. “Having the experience of being there last year and losing is going to put us in the mind-set that we can’t lose this year.”

That narrow two-point loss serves as an additional inspiration going into a pressure-packed weekend.

“We definitely want revenge,” junior Jordan Confessore said. “We definitely want to win. There’s enough motivation there anyways, and losing last year is even extra motivation.”

Tomorrow, the Bombers begin the tournament against St. John Fisher College, a team they defeated by 18 and 20 points in two contests this season.

It could be a trap game for Ithaca, with the previous matches possibly causing them to relax in anticipation for the final, but Klie said feisty Fisher is the only team on the Bombers’ mind. All of their focus will go into preparing to defeat them again.

“It’s a team that is very emotional,” she said. “They run on pure adrenaline, and if we play their game, it won’t work out so well. We’ve been able to play our game against them this season. If we do that again we can come out with another win.”

Confessore said playing their game consists of rebounding the ball, outletting to the guards and running up and down the court. That has been the team’s strategy for success over the past 16 games.

That success has earned them a No. 1 regional ranking in the East, giving them a solid chance of an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament if they were to drop a game this weekend.  

But, Ithaca is not taking anything for granted this time around.

“It doesn’t really affect us because we never really know for sure if we’ll get that at-large bid or not,” sophomore Jessica Farley said.

If the team can extend its streak to 18 games in a row, there will be no worries over an at-large bid, as another top seed may be in order.

But first on their mind is their top seed in the Empire 8. If the Blue and Gold are victorious over the Fisher Cardinals tomorrow, they will play the winner of Utica College and Stevens on Saturday.

“We want to keep this streak going, and we want to win the tournament and get into the NCAAs,” Confessore said. “Being undefeated in the Empire 8, though, that’s kind of a special thing.”

Men's

Though the men’s basketball team suffered five of its seven losses on the road, the team remains confident heading into the Empire 8 Championship at St. John Fisher College.

After finishing Empire 8 play at 11–5, the Bombers earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will square off against third-seeded Nazareth College. Last season, it was Nazareth who upset the No.1-seeded Bombers in the tournament. Sophomore guard Jordan Marcus said the team will look for a little bit of redemption Friday.

“For those of us who were here last year, we really want to get them back,” he said.

Junior guard Chris Cruz-Rivas shares the same enthusiasm.

“We’ve got a little chip on our shoulder right now,” Cruz-Rivas said. “The thing we preach is that it’s not easy to beat a team three times. We beat them twice in the regular season last year, and then they got us where it hurt the most. But we are happy to play them again.”

Ithaca closed out the season winning its final four games and has not lost since Feb. 6 in a six-point loss that came at the hands of Nazareth. The Bombers split the season series with the Golden Flyers and both finished 11–5 in conference play. The rubber game on Friday will be the true test to see who deserves to advance to the conference championship game. Junior Phil Barera said the Bombers’ stride couldn’t have come at a better time.

“We are feeling more and more confident,” Barera said. “Everyone has buckled down here at the end knowing that it could be [senior Tom Brown] and [senior Will Gaskins’] last games, so everyone is leaving it out there for them.”

Waiting on the other side of the tournament is conference powerhouse Fisher, who will host the tournament. The Cardinals finished conference play at an impressive 15–1 and are No. 23 in the country, according to d3hoops.com. Fisher plays fourth-seeded Stevens Institute of Technology in the first round on Friday.

Though the Bombers lost both games against the Cardinals in the regular season, including a 31-point loss in Pittsford, N.Y., Cruz-Rivas said a lot has changed since then. He said it won’t be as easy for the Cardinals if the Bombers are fortunate enough to see St. John Fisher for a third time.

“Fisher is definitely beatable,” Cruz-Rivas said. “We are always capable of getting it going on offense, but we just need to stay focused on defense. Whoever plays defense that night will win.”

Barera said now that the team has turned its defensive play around, the Bombers are set for the tournament.

“We knew our biggest problem was not buckling down on defense,” Barera said. “We shifted our focus and realized we had to play both sides of the ball to win. We have really turned things around.”