Senior John Ivy (Rochester, NY/East) scored 26 points including 15 in the second half to lead The College at Brockport Men's Basketball team, seeded No. 1 in the tournament to a 73-61 victory over #6 seed St. John Fisher Friday night in the semifinal round of the 48th Annual Wendy's College Classic Tournament at Roberts Wesleyan College.
Brockport will play the winner of the Roberts Wesleyan and Rochester for the Wendy's Tournament championship at 8 pm Saturday at Roberts Wesleyan. The last team title for the Golden Eagles was in the 2001-02 tournament with a 20-point win over RIT. Brockport has won the championship seven times but just once since 1975-76.
Ivy scored the opening basket on a 3-pointer and added the next two points for Brockport (3-1) as the Golden Eagles built an early lead. A pair of free throws and a jumper by the senior guard midway through the half stretched the lead to 11 points at 25-14 with 8:18 left in the opening half.
Brockport had two 14-point leads in the last five minutes of the half but St. John Fisher (2-2) scored seven consecutive points down the stretch to trim the lead to six points at 33-27 just before the end of the half.
Senior Patrick Coyle (North Chili, NY/ Bishop Kearney) made a layup with 44 seconds left in the half as Brockport took the 35-27 lead into the intermission.
In the second half, Ivy started the scoring again for the Golden Eagles converting a pair of free throws and then a 15-foot jumper as Brockport regained the 12-point advantage.
The lead remained at or near 10 points for Brockport until the 12:50 mark when freshman Aaron White (Buffalo, NY/Canisius) converted a three-point play that sparked a 6-0 run to build an 18-point advantage for the Golden Eagles. Ivy added a nifty jumper from the elbow of the lane near the end of the run.
The Cardinals cut the lead to 11 points with 7:53 remaining but a minute later, Ivy drained another 3-pointer to regain the 14-point advantage as Brockport held the double-digit lead for the remainder of the game.
Ivy's 26 points moves his career scoring total to 1,255 points and pushed him into 12th place on the all-time career scoring list as he passed Mychal Wilkes and leaves him just 11 points shy of No. 11 on the list currently held by Ben Drake at 1,266.
Ivy led all scorers and was the only player in double-digits scoring for the Golden Eagles. Coyle finished with nine points, a game-high 11 rebounds and four blocked shots. Bobby Bell (Rochester, NY/East) and Clifton Lyerly (Lawrence, NY/Inwood) each scored eight points.