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 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.

Football bracket set

Ithaca is in, Alfred is out. If you’ve read any of my football posts over the past month or so, you know that I had the Saxons pegged as my dark horse National Championship contender. Oops. Three straight losses to finish the season will usually be enough to keep you out of the playoffs.

Surprisingly enough, the committee selected three teams from the Empire 8, something I thought was a virtually impossibility. But Hartwick got in by virtue of the automatic bid for winning the Empire 8. St. John Fisher got in based on their impressive season (9-1 overall) and Ithaca got in based on their spectacular six-game winning streak that helped them finish 8-2 overall.

Hartwick faces undefeated Curry, Fisher hosts 8-2 Hobart and the Bombers get the unenviable task of traveling to Ohio to face two-time defending champion Mount Union. Elsewhere in the playoff field, there weren’t too many surprises. The top four seeds in the four brackets are Mount Union, Central, Washington and Jefferson, and UW-Whitewater.

After I take some time to look over the bracket, I’ll make some predictions and post them here. Feel free to leave comments on who is your early favorite.

Monday Morning Quarterback

Another weekend, another slew of crazy outcomes. The biggest news this past Saturday was the completely unexpected upset of Hartwick over 10th-ranked St. John Fisher. In case you’re counting, that makes the Hawks 3-1 overall, and 2-0 in the Empire 8. Earlier this season Hartwick upset Ithaca, earning what was then the biggest win in school history. Cross that one out now, and replace it with the Fisher win.

Junior quarterback Jason Boltus played an absolutely flawless game, going 22-of-33 for 336 yards and two touchdowns through the air, and 29 yards and one touchdown on the ground. As of right now, Alfred and Hartwick are tied for first place in the Empire 8 standings. Who saw that coming?

Other musings from around the world of D-III football this weekend:

Read more

Monday Morning Quarterback

This weekend Hat Trick had the opportunity to travel up to Alfred, N.Y. for a little getaway. One thing that become immediately clear to me Saturday afternoon - the Saxons are good this year. Really, really good.

Alfred destroyed St. Lawrence 49-19, one week after blowing past Thiel 34-7. For you math lovers, Alfred has outscored their opponents 83-26. That’s a pretty ridiculous point differential. Skeptics will be quick to point out that the Saxons’ next game comes against reigning co-Empire 8 champion Springfield College.

However, the Pride are coming off a bad 33-30 loss to Montclair State, and don’t appear to have the same magic as last year’s squad. Chris Sharpe is still a beast, but Springfield simply lost too many starters on defense for Sharpe to compensate for. If Alfred does get past Springfield, as I expect them to, they won’t face another tough challenge until their final game of the season at St. John Fisher. At this point in the season, the Empire 8 looks to be a two-team race between Fisher and Alfred, which pretty much no one would have expected three weeks ago.

Some other things I learned this weekend: Read more

Not too shabby

It’s been a slow weekend, and I love the chance for self promotion as much as the next guy, so why don’t we revisit my Empire 8 men’s tennis predictions from a few days ago.

The top four seeds - Nazareth College, St. John Fisher College, Ithaca College, Rochester Institute of Technology - all advanced to the second round, which I correctly forecasted. Then third-seeded Ithaca and fourth-seeded RIT pulled off upsets against St. John Fisher and Nazareth, respectively.

Yes, that’s right, I predicted all six matchups correctly. Unfortunately, I tabbed the Tigers to defeat the Bombers in the championship match. Ithaca won 6-3 earlier today. Alas, I am human after all.

But I’ll take six out of seven any time. As Dave Chappelle might say, “Byahh!“

Empire 8 gears up for tennis action

So I’m really sick of writing about the weather, but it needs to be noted that virtually all the snow has melted. This is good news for virtually everyone, especially athletes on spring teams. It’s bad news for those still holding on to winter, but really … just go to Antarctica or something.

On Thursday, the Empire 8 announced the seeds for their Championship Tournament, which is scheduled for this coming weekend. The tournament, which has been won by either Ithaca College or the Rochester Institute of Technology every year since its existence, features all eight teams. Nazareth College nabbed the top overall seed and will face eighth-seeded Utica College. The rest of the matchups include:

Second seed St. John Fisher College vs. seventh seed Elmira College

Third seed Ithaca vs. sixth seed Alfred University

Fourth seed RIT vs. Hartwick College

The schedule is listed on the Empire 8’s announcement, so I won’t bore you with more times and numbers. Instead, I’m humbly offer my predictions. For starters, I don’t see any upsets happening in the first round. So that means we’ll see No. 1 Nazareth against No. 4 RIT and No. 2 St. John Fisher against No. 3 Ithaca. Now here’s where it gets interesting. Hat Trick has been around college sports long enough to know that experience counts in championship settings. That’s why I’m predicting an Ithaca - RIT final, yet again.

And the champion? Well, judging by how Ithaca has played lately, I’m going to go with RIT. Final prediction - RIT 5, Ithaca 4, mark that down.

I’ve found my new favorite website

Tonight the Empire 8 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments open in Rochester and Elmira, respectively. On the men’s side the matchups are: No. 1 St. John Fisher vs. No. 4 RIT and No. 2 Utica College vs. No. 3 Ithaca College. The women’s matchups include: No. 1 Elmira College vs. No. 4 RIT and No. 2 Ithaca vs. No. 3 Utica. Fisher and Elmira get to host the tournaments since they finished as the top seeds.

In one of the most competitive seasons in the history of the Empire 8, the games will, for the first time, be available to anyone with internet access, via free webcasts on PennAtlantic.com. All it requires is a free user registration (but what doesn’t these days) that takes 30 seconds. After registering earlier today in preparation for tonight’s contests, I browsed through the site to see what else they had to offer. I was excited to see that their schedule included a ton of games (upwards of 40) in a short time period (Today through March 1st). Some do require extra viewing payments, but a solid portion of the games are free.

My apologies to family and friends - this site will be commanding most of my free time for the next week, and probably longer.

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