Despite leading at halftime, the St. John Fisher College men's basketball team was unable to get past a strong shooting performance from the Stevens Institute of Technology, resulting in a 102-95 road loss on Friday in Empire 8 Conference action.

With the loss, the Cardinals drop to 12-5 overall and 6-2 in Empire 8 games on the season while Stevens improves to 4-4 and 8-8 in conference games following the win.

The two team battled back-and-forth in the early minutes as there were six lead changes and one tie just within the first 3:52 of the first half. Eventually, Fisher asserted itself with a 13-2 run over the next four minutes that included two 3-pointers from Tyler English and one from Alex Sausville. The run put the Cardinals up 22-10 with 12:30 left in the half.

Stevens did not back down however, and climbed back into the game by going on a 15-3 run to tie the game up 25-25 with roughly eight minutes to go before intermission.

Despite the comeback from the Ducks, Fisher would manage to hold the lead at halftime as Sausville drilled back-to-back 3-pointers in the final two minutes of the half, proving to be just enough for a 46-44 Fisher advantage.

In the second half, Stevens quickly jumped ahead by two points before the Cardinals went on a 9-0 run behind five points from Keegan Ryan to hold a 57-48 lead with 16:29 remaining.

The Ducks were not deterred by the Fisher run and went on to hit six 3-pointers over the next nine minutes of the half, helping them outscore the Cardinals 31-11 during that span. The result was a 79-68 Stevens lead with over seven minutes left in the game.

That lead, which grew as high as 16 points, along with the Ducks' 3-point shooting (16-of-31), was too much for the Cardinals to overcome in the end as they fell by seven points.

Ryan led Fisher in the game after posting 22 points and 10 rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting in the contest. Those numbers were good enough for his eighth double-double of the season.

Also turning in strong performances were Sausville and English, who scored 19 and 18 points respectively, while also each hitting four 3-pointers in the game.

Tyler Hart tallied 21 points while Zach Ottaway had 12 points and four blocks for the Cardinals.

Fisher will return to the fold at 6 p.m. on Monday as they host Utica College in an Empire 8 matchup.