CORTLAND, N.Y. – Riley Thompson hit a 3-pointer with 2:50 left to give Ithaca the lead for good and the visiting Bombers held on to defeat Cortland, 77-74, in a non-league men's basketball contest.
Thompson, Jake Mitchell and Jack Stern led Ithaca (2-1) with 14 points apiece. Sebastian Alderete finished with 11 points, 16 rebounds and four steals. He grabbed a board and was fouled with eight seconds left after Cortland missed a potential go-ahead layup down 75-74. Alderete made both free throws, and Skylar Sinon's steal with a second remaining sealed the Ithaca win. Sinon ended the game with nine assists, four steals, five rebounds and seven points.
Eric Edwards (Binghamton) led Cortland (1-1) with 27 points and three blocks and also added seven rebounds. He was 8-for-11 from the field and 10-for-11 from the foul line.
Austin Grunder (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson) finished with 17 points and 20 rebounds – the most rebounds in a game by a Cortland player since Frank Hodge's 20 caroms in a win at Ithaca on Feb. 4, 1997.
Jake DiSanto (Victor) and
Ryan Schmadel (Oriskany) each scored nine points. Schmadel made three of Cortland's nine 3-pointers, while DiSanto and Grunder each hit two treys.
Brendan Fitzpatrick (Plainview/Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK) totaled four assists and
Ricardo Dominguez (Manhattan/Our Saviour Lutheran) handed out three assists.
Ithaca led 44-40 after a first half that featured eight lead changes and three ties. The Bombers opened the second half on a 16-4 run, capped by a Clay Medling 3-pointer, to take its largest lead of the game at 56-44 with 15:49 remaining.
Cortland, however, fired back with a 13-0 run over the next 3:46 to take the lead. Edwards scored 11 of those points, including two free throws to put the Red Dragons up 57-56 with 12:03 left.
The Red Dragons led 73-67 with 5:37 remaining after Edwards was fouled shooting a 3-pointer and made all three free throws. Stern's 3-point play with 5:03 left cut the Cortland lead in half, and he made two foul shots with 3:52 left to make it 73-72. Thompson's long 3-pointer at the 2:50 mark put Ithaca on top.
Edwards hit the first of two free throws with 56.4 seconds left to cut Ithaca's lead to one. Ithaca missed a 3-pointer with 24.5 seconds left on an airball as the shot clock expired. Cortland called timeout with 20.9 seconds left, and Grunder's contested driving layup came up just short with 10 seconds left. After Alderete made his free throws, Cortland quickly raced the ball up court before Sinon made the game-clinching steal.
Cortland shot 38 percent overall and 39 percent (9-of-23) from 3-point range. The Red Dragons connected on 19-of-23 free throws. Ithaca finished at 33 percent overall and 23 percent (9-of-39) from long distance. The Bombers made 16 of their 20 foul shots. Ithaca held a 23-11 advantage in points off of turnovers as Cortland committed 19 giveaways compared to Ithaca's nine.
Cortland will play at Division I Colgate University Thursday at 7 p.m. in a game that is an exhibition for Cortland but counts for Colgate.
