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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Visiting Cortland used a strong defensive effort Wednesday at Nazareth and went on to defeat the Golden Flyers, 53-50, in a non-conference men's basketball game.

The victory snapped a six-game losing streak for the Red Dragons, who improved to 3-6 overall. Nazareth dropped to 7-3 overall. Nazareth resumes Empire 8 Conference play this weekend with home games Friday against Hartwick at 8 p.m. and Saturday against Stevens at 4 p.m.

Cortland limited Nazareth to 34.5 percent shooting for the game as the Golden Flyers made 20 of 58 shots. Freshman Brad Ford had a double-double for the Golden Flyers with 14 points and 10 rebounds and junior Jason Corletta also had 14 points.

Nazareth led by as many as seven points in the first half before settling for a 22-21 lead at the break. The Golden Flyers opened the second half with three straight baskets to regain their seven-point cushion, 28-21. Cortland answered with three-pointers by Harrison Hefele and Jesse Winter and another jumper by Hefele to regain the lead at 29-28 and the game stayed close the rest of the way.

The lead changed hands nine times in the second half with Nazareth gaining a three-point advantage, 47-44, on a basket by Ford with 2:44 left. Cortland's Kevin McMahon answered with a jumper and Winter knocked down two free throws with 1:35 left to enable the Red Dragons to regain the lead for good.

After a Nazareth miss, Hefele nailed a three-pointer with 1:00 left to push Cortland's lead to 51-47. Nazareth answered on its next possession as Tyshun Stephens converted a three-point play with :50 left. Jeremy Smith then hit a big bucket for Cortland, sinking a short jumper with the shot clock winding down with :16 left.

Nazareth set up a play for Corletta with time winding down, but his three-point try was partially blocked by McMahon, who secured the rebound as time expired.

Winter led all scorers with 22 points on 8 for 11 shooting with three three-pointers. Hefele and McMahon each had 12. In addition to Ford and Corletta, Waldbillig grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds to go with eight points.