The St. John Fisher College men's basketball team rolled to a 79-56 win over visiting Ithaca College on Friday in an Empire 8 Conference matchup.  

With the win, Fisher improves to 9-5 overall and 3-1 in the Empire 8, while Ithaca drops to 0-5, 4-11.

Fisher never trailed in the game.  The Cardinals led 7-6 with 14:55 left in the first half, but used a 12-0 run over the next five minutes to pull away.   Ithaca cut the Fisher lead to seven at 29-22 with 3:05 left in the opening period, but the Cardinals ended the stanza with a 10-4 spurt to take a 39-26 advantage at the break.

Ithaca pulled to within 10 points at 51-41 with 12:25 remaining, but the Cardinals went on a 13-1 run, including two 3-pointers from Adam Ambielli, to take a 64-42 lead with just over eight minutes to play.

Junior Optimystik Kinard led Fisher with a season-high 21 points, including four 3-pointers. He also blocked three shots. Stefan Bock added 14 points, while Ambielli, Tyler Hart and Charles McVay each scored eight.

Freshman Keegan Ryan grabbed a team-best 10 boards.

Fisher returns to action at 2 p.m. on Saturday and will host Utica College.  The Pioneers fell 93-84 to Nazareth College on Friday night.