Live: Ithaca vs. St. John Fisher

9:51 p.m. Final - St. John Fisher 88, Ithaca 68. Not much more to say other than St. John Fisher dominated in eery aspect of the game. A very, very disappointing end to the Bombers’ season, if this is their last game. They may qualify for an ECAC game, but that remains to be seen. Fisher now advances to play Nazareth in the Championship game tomorrow at 3 p.m.

9:42 p.m. Burton is certainly doing all he can, draining three pointer after three pointer. But the score sits at 83-64 with 3:40 left. The Bombers just can’t stop anything the Cardinals are throwing at them offensively. It is beyond quiet here, and Fisher senior forward Justin Beigel just drained a three pointer to effectively end the game. Fans are beginning to file out. I definitely didn’t see this blowout coming. Both games this season between Ithaca and Fisher were played very close, but this one has been anything but.

9:32 p.m. Go figure. Two Chris Cruz three pointers and a huge Bostic block, and the score sits at 73-53 Fisher with 7:36 left. But at least the crowd is back into the game. Ithaca will still basically need perfect play from here on out, and some Fisher mistakes. But stranger things have happened.

9:30 p.m. Fisher leads 70-46 with 8:22 left. The Ithaca crowd is completely out of it. Considering how well Ithaca played against Fisher the last time these teams met, the score right now is pretty shocking. It’s probably too late for Ithaca to mount any kind of comeback at this point.

9:25 p.m. Ithaca cut it to a 20-point, 64-44 Fisher lead, but the Cardinals just hit another layup causing another Ithaca timeout. The Bombers will have to make a run now to have any chance of coming back. Despite being only 4-of-14 right now, Burton and his three-point shooting will have to lead the come-from-behind attack.

9:20 p.m. Fisher leads 59-37 with 13:22 left. Time is just simply running out for Ithaca. Bostic is back in though, which is necessary if they are going to make a comeback. Fisher is still just shooting the ball at will, bombing threes and getting easy backdoor layups with ease.

9:12 p.m. Fisher now leads 47-29 with 16:20 left in the game. Bostic just left the game with an apparent leg injury, and that’s about the last thing the Bombers needed. Burton continues to struggle and the Bombers have already turned it over a few times.

8:50 p.m. St. John Fisher leads 43-29 at halftime. Burton is struggling so far, having only hit two of his 10 shots in the first half. The Cardinals are showing Ithaca a balanced offensive attack, as nine of their 11 players have already scored. The most telling stat from the first half: Ithaca is shooting 27.3% compared to Fisher’s 54.8%.

8:47 p.m. Cardinals lead 39-27 with 1:24 left in the first half. Ithaca junior point guard Sean Burton looks to be a little shaken up after a mid-court collision. Barring any bleeding though, Mullins won’t take the Empire 8 Player of the Year out.

8:35 p.m. St. John Fisher has opened up a 28-18 lead on the Bombers with 6:50 remaining in the first half. Ithaca coach Jim Mullins has just called another timeout in an attempt to get his team settled down. Junior center Jeff Bostic already has seven points and seven rebounds, and appears well on his way to another huge game.

8:27 p.m. Hey guys, we’re FINALLY up and running. Sometimes I hate technology. But the Nazareth-Stevens game was a dandy, much closer than the 81-70 final indicates. The Golden Flyers are simply a high-powered offensive machine, and will now play for the Empire 8 Championship and the automatic NCAA bid tomorrow at 3 p.m.

The Bombers and Cardinals are about halfway through the first half. As expected it’s a solid game, but Ithaca just took a timeout after a St. John Fisher run put them 19-12. More updates to come.

[Editor's note: we're having some technical snafus but we hope to give you live updates. Check back soon.]

Live Empire 8 updates tonight

Hat Trick will be in Ithaca’s Ben Light Gymnasium tonight for the Empire 8 men’s basketball tournament. No. 2 Stevens Institute of Technology and No. 3 Nazareth College play at 6 p.m., followed by top-seeded Ithaca College against No. 4 St. John Fisher College at 8 p.m.

I’ll update early and often, so check back throughout the night. In the meantime, read over the preview I put together for this week’s Ithacan.

Women’s bracket now official too

With Elmira College’s 58-49 win against the Rochester Institute of Technology earlier today, St. John Fisher College wrapped up the fourth and final seed in the Empire 8 tournament. The Cardinals will face top-seeded Stevens Institute of Technology, while No. 2 Ithaca College plays No. 3 Utica College.

If I were a betting man, I’d say the championship game would come down to Stevens and Ithaca, which would be a rematch of Friday’s 68-57 Ithaca win. But that win didn’t come without cost for the Bombers as they lost senior center Erika Steele and junior guard Megan Rumschik to season-ending injuries. Along with the earlier loss of senior guard Kali Carnovale, Ithaca is losing depth quickly.

Still, I see both the men’s and women’s brackets coming down to Ithaca-Stevens in the final game. I’ll be putting together more in-depth previews of all four playoff match ups this week, so check back Friday for the final capsules.

Empire 8 tournament field set

Well, it’s official - Ithaca will host the Empire 8 men’s basketball tournament next weekend. After today’s games (Ithaca won and St. John Fisher won), the top-seeded Bombers will face the fourth-seeded Cardinals, while No. 2 Stevens Institute of Technology will play No. 3 Nazareth College. Times for the first round games on Friday have not yet been announced.

The women’s bracket is still not set, but will be after Sunday. Check back here for an update on that.

Empire 8 race tighter than ever

Hat Trick was at the Ithaca-Stevens Institute of Technology double header last night and let me tell you, it was exciting basketball. Lots of running, lots of scoring, the way basketball should be played. The Bombers won both contests, which was particularly important on the men’s side.

On the women’s side, the Ducks had already clinched the top seed in the Empire 8 tournament heading into last night’s game. The men’s team, however, has put itself in the position of controlling its own destiny. If they win today against Nazareth College, they will host the tournament. If they lose, Stevens will host.

The Ducks concluded their regular season with last night’s loss. Stevens head coach Josh Loeffler told me after the game he won’t go crazy following today’s games.

“It’s an awful situation, let’s be real,” Loeffler said. “[Ithaca] Coach Mullins is a great guy. I’ve known [Ithaca Assistant Coach] Nevada Smith for a long time, but I have no choice but to root for Nazareth now. To be honest, I’m not going to look at scores at all tomorrow because I’ll just drive myself crazy.”

Loeffler went on to say he’ll check the final scores later in the night. As far as the rest of the tournament field is concerned, Nazareth has clinched a spot already. If they win today against the Bombers, they will lock up the No. 2 seed and Ithaca will fall to No. 3. St. John Fisher College clinches the fourth seed with a win against Hartwick College, while Utica College has to beat Alfred University and have the Cardinals lose to get in.

Check back later tonight after all the games are finished for a complete breakdown of the results and match ups.

All-decade team features former first-round NBA pick

D3hoops.com released their selections for the all-decade teams (men’s and women’s) of Division III basketball players. The reason for looking back on the past 10 years? Well, I think they said it best:

Ten years ago this month, Division III Basketball Online moved from its temporary home on the Gallaudet and Catholic University servers to www.d3hoops.com, where we’ve been ever since.

Congratulations to everyone that’s been involved with this top-notch website over the years. As someone who has written for D3football.com (the sites are all under the D3sports.com brand), I can say from experience that Pat Coleman and the rest of those guys are great individuals and really take their coverage of Division III sports seriously.

But I was particularly interested in these all-decade teams. The men’s first team included Augsburg alum Devean George, who most NBA fans would probably recognize. George was a prolific scorer and ultimately was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the 1999 NBA draft. But in reading over the bios of the other first team selections, as well as the other four teams, I was amazed at some of the careers players have had at the Division III level.

D3hoops.com has even opened up a discussion board on their site for fans to voice their opinions on the choices. For me personally it was a fantastic history lesson. Because I have only been truly immersed in the world of Division III sports for the last four years, I don’t know much even about the early 2000s, let the 1990s and prior. So this was very educational for me as a fan.