Courtesy Wesley Athletics
LANCASTER, Pa. - Ithaca College hit 16 threes, but had to withstand a furious comeback bid by Wesley College before surviving for a 96-92 win over the Wolverines at the Sponaugle Tournament at Franklin & Marshall College.
The Bombers (8-2) hit 6-of-8 field goals to start the second half, including four threes, and took a 15-point lead less than five minutes into the final period.
Wesley (5-6), however, slowly crept back into the game. Paul Reynolds (Smyrna, Del./Smyrna) was saddled with foul trouble most of the evening, but scored five straight points for the Wolverines to cut the Ithaca lead to just 84-83 with 2:50 left in the game. The Bombers' Sean Rossi sank a pair of free throws on their next possession and after a Wesley miss, Andrei Oztemel hit his seventh three of the night to stretch the lead to 89-83.
The Wolverines cut it to two, 91-89, on a lay up by Reynolds with just 36 seconds left, but Ithaca, who started just 8-of-16 from the foul line, hit eight of their final 11 to ice the win.
Oztemel led a perimeter attack that finished 16-of-30 from three-point range. went 7-of-10 from long range to account for all of his 21 points for Ithaca. Jordan Marcus scored 24 points, fueled by 6-of-12 from behind the arc. Chris Cruz-Rivas hit 3-of-6 threes in the game.
All the outside shooting opened the insided up for Phil Barrera, who had 18 points and nine rebounds.
Rebounding and bench scoring kept Wesley in the game. The Wolverines beat up the Bombers on the backboards 41-33 and the Wesley reserves held a 25-8 scoring advantage.
Kevin Johnson (Smyrna, Del./Smyrna) led all players with 25 points. The senior hit four threes himself in the game and led the team with eight rebounds. Darrell Johnson (New Castle, Del./Howard) scored 10 of his 14 in the first half and added four steals. Reynolds overcame foul trouble to shoot 5-of-10 on the night and finished with 13 points.
Jamal Wilson (Fredericksburg, Va./Stafford) came off the bench for the best game of his season, hitting 6-of-7 field goals for 12 points.
The Wolverines continued their strong free throw shooting as the Capital Athletic Conference's top foul shooting team hit 17-of-21 (81 percent) on the night.
Wesley will play Old Westbury (N.Y.) in the consolation game on January 3 at 6:00 PM.