Recent history shows that whenever the men’s basketball team and Hartwick meet, the game is a tight, closely-contested affair. That was not the case Saturday afternoon as the Bombers defeated the Hawks 75-54 in Ben Light Gymnasium.
Senior forward Travis Warech led the Bombers (17–4, 8–1) with a game-high 21 points and eight rebounds coming off the bench. Senior guard Eli Maravich earned the start replacing injured senior forward Andrei Oztemel. Maravich, with 12 points and eight rebounds, was one of four Bombers in double figures. Maravich said he was pleased with both his and the team’s performance.
“I had big shoes to fill with Andrei being out,” Maravich said. “He’s a money shooter and I knew I had to pick it up with my three-point shooting. I thought overall, the team came together and played well today.”
Hawks Head Coach Todd McGuinness made the decision not to put junior forward and preseason All-American Jared Suderley and junior forward Kyle Bradley in the starting lineup after each received a technical foul in their loss to Elmira Friday night. Suderley was substituted early on and led the Hawks with 14 points in 36 minutes. Head Coach Jim Mullins said while McGuinness’ decision was a surprise, it was also understandable. He said it felt great to beat the Hawks (11–8, 3–5) regardless of their underwhelming season.
“Every league game is going to have huge implications,” Mullins said. “When the four teams that make the Empire 8 tournament are determined, you’re going to see four, five, six losses because everyone in the league is going to beat up on each other.”
The team shot just under 53 percent from the field and kept the Hawks to just fewer than 36 percent. Warech said the win was needed to keep the momentum from the other night.
“We upset a top 25 team last night,” Warech said. “It would’ve meant nothing if we didn’t take care of business tonight.”
The Bombers will host the University of Scranton Tuesday at 7 p.m. They will travel to Nazareth Friday knowing that a win will clinch a berth in the Empire 8 tournament.
