Ithaca, N.Y. - The Clarkson University Men's Basketball team reversed a nine-point halftime deficit en route to a 74-69 win at Ithaca College, Saturday afternoon.
Clarkson improves to 11-10 overall, 6-8 in league play and will travel to take on Skidmore and Hobart next Friday and Saturday. Ithaca drops to 8-13, 7-7 in conference play.
Ithaca would jump out to an early 10-2 lead following six straight points from Matthew Zenker. Steve DeRegis and Braeden Burns got Clarkson back to within three with a layup and three to make it 10-7 but a quick 8-0 response from Ithaca pushed the lead back to 18-7 with 11:46 remaining.
The lead would remain at 11 over the next three minutes with free throws from DeRegis and Lorenzo Rappa cancelling out a Nick Lemmond three pointer but a 4-0 run over the next minute pushed it to 25-10 in favor of the Bombers. Despite the early deficit, Clarkson would continue to chip away putting together an 8-0 run up to the 4:04 mark thanks layups and a three from Burns and DeRegis.
Following another 4-0 streak from Ithaca to push the lead back to 30-21, Burns and Lorenzo Rappa would quickly respond with an answer for Clarkson to bring it back to four but the Bombers closed out the final minute and a half with the final five points of the half to make it 35-26 at the break.
Clarkson would struggle a bit from the field in the first half going 33% (9-27) from the field and 23% (3-13) from three but finish with zero bench points. Ithaca managed to go 42% (13-31) overall from the field and 28% (5-18) from three while grabbing nine offensive boards through the first 20 minutes.
Out of halftime, Nate Abernethy connected on an early three just ten seconds in to spark a 10-2 run with a three and free throws from DeRegis and free throws from Burns to cut the deficit to just one. With the teams trading a pair of buckets over the next three minutes, Ithaca would go up by as much as four with 15:00 on the clock following a Yoav Regev three to make it 42-38.
The game remained a one possession game over the next few trips down the court until a 7-0 run from Clarkson in just over two minutes flipped the score to 50-46 in favor of the Knights with a Matt Toscano layup. Two Bomber threes in the next two trips for the hosts made it 52-50 Ithaca but another timely answer from Clarkson, this time in the form of a 12-0 run up to the 6:50 mark, would result in a 10-point lead for the Green and Gold.
As the game entered the final five minutes, Ithaca would go on an 8-0 scoring run, holding Clarkson scoreless for nearly four minutes bringing it back to a 64-63 game until Toscano would hit a three to put Clarkson back up four. Ithaca managed to tie it up with under a minute remaining but Abernethy and Lorenzo Rappa would go 4-4 down the stretch from the charity stripe for the 74-69 final.
Clarkson would finish shooting 41% (24-59) from the field and 33% (10-30) from three while Ithaca would go 37% (25-67) from the field and 27% (9-34) from the field.
DeRegis led all scorers with 29 points and 10 rebounds while Burns added 19 points and 13 rebounds. Abernethy would be close behind with 15 points of his own. Jaylon O'Neil led Ithaca with 19 points while Zenker tallied 17 in the effort.
