The men’s basketball team kept its season alive yesterday by defeating top-ranked Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. 79-67 to advance to the Empire 8 Conference Championship game for the first time since 2004.
The Hawks entered the game sporting a 23—2 overall record with one of their two losses on the season coming at the hands of the Bombers.
Sophomore center Tom Sweeney led the Blue and Gold with a game-high 21 points as the Bombers cruised to a 40-26 lead at halftime and did not trail at all in the second half. Senior guard Jordan Marcus had 14 points, junior guard Andrei Oztemel scored 13 and freshman guard Connor Rogers drained nine points and added 11 rebounds.
Ithaca led the assist to turnover battle, having 14 assists to eight turnovers. The Hawks had a ratio of 15:14. The South Hill squad capitalized by scoring 21 points off the Hawks’ turnovers. Hartwick had nine points off Ithaca’s turnovers.
The Bombers will face second-seeded Nazareth College in the conference finals today at 4 p.m. in Oneonta, N.Y. The winner will earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
