Score: Elmira College 66, Ithaca College 63
Records: Elmira (3-12, 1-5 E8), Ithaca (6-10, 2-5 E8)
Location: Elmira, N.Y. - Speidel Gymnasium

ELMIRA, N.Y. -- The Elmira College men's basketball team came out on the winning end of a 66-63 thriller against the visiting Bombers of Ithaca College to earn its first Empire 8 Conference win of the season at Speidel Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.

The barnburning victory was a breakthrough for a Soaring Eagle team that has found itself not only in, but leading several contests throughout a 10-game losing streak, one that came to a halt on Saturday. For the first time against a conference opponent this season, EC was able to make the necessary plays down the stretch to maintain its advantage through the final whistle.

Although the Purple and Gold entered the halftime break to a three-point cushion at 34-31, the Bombers opened the second half with an 18-6 run to take the largest lead of the game by either side at 49-40. A successful and-one from Ithaca's Gabe Perez-Ronchetta just 37 seconds into the second stanza allowed the Bombers to turn a one-point deficit into a 36-34 lead. That advantage would hold up for Ithaca until the midway point of the period. Elmira used an 11-1 run of its own to wipe away the deficit and briefly pull ahead by one with just over nine minutes remaining.

While several players made great contributions in the win, Henry Cuffee '19 and Alex Ischiropoulos '20 combined to score 20 of EC's final 26 points with 10 apiece. Ischiropoulos connected for one of his two second-half treys at the 10-minute mark, followed by a lay-in from Cuffee, which put EC up 51-50. Then down by four approximately four minutes later, the duo scored five unanswered points, the first two on a tremendous individual effort by Cuffee to gather a nearly-intercepted pass, drive through the lane, and finished with the left hand. Ischirouplos followed by making a 3-pointer in the right corner, just in front of the Elmira bench, as the as the shot clock expired.

That clutch shot from the right corner gave Elmira a 58-57 advantage, one it would not surrender in the remaining four-plus minutes. On three separate occasions within the last three minutes, the Bombers came within one, but in each of the following possessions, managed to extend the lead back to three points. After two foul shots from Marc Chasin cut the EC lead to 64-63, Cuffee sealed the win by making both of his free throw attempts with just 6.8 seconds on the clock.

Turning Point
With the game knotted at 53-53, the Bombers received back-to-back buckets from Chasin to climb ahead, 57-53. However, before the mini run by IC's standout junior, Carroll Rich missed a pair of free throws. Then after Cuffee's layup trimmed the Ithaca lead down to 57-55, Chasin missed the first half of a one-and-one, but the Bombers chose not to line anyone up along the key, giving Cuffee an uncontested rebound. On the following EC possession, Ischiropoulos drained his go-ahead 3-pointer, but had Ithaca made good on its attempts from the line, the Bombers would have been in the driver's seat inside the final five minutes.

In Their Own Words...
Head Coach Randie Torgalski his team's ability to close out a tight game with the win...
"We showed a little bit more composure on both ends of the court, especially on the defensive end. A lot of times, when we get in those tight games, we tend to get away from what we had been doing throughout the game. Today, we stuck to our game plan and we did a great job taking care of the ball. That has been an issue down the stretch, getting shots. And it helps having Henry Cuffee on the court at the end of the game. He's had an issue with fouls all season, and it was nice to have him in crunch time because he made some of our bigger plays tonight."

Coach Torgalski on getting the first conference win of the season against Ithaca...
"Obviously any win is a good win, and a conference win is even better. Our conference is far from being settled for postseason, but we have to start winning some games. To put one on the board and get it started is a nice thing. If we can start stringing them together we get back into the thick of things. Right now, it looks like teams two through nine are going to be bunched up throughout the year, so if we can start climbing over some of these teams ahead of us, it would put us in a nice position in February."

Coach Torgalski when asked about receiving contributions from a variety of sources en route to the win...
"That's something we have been stressing and emphasizing; we don't have 'the guy' like other teams do. Ithaca has No. 3 Marc Chasin, that's their guy. We don't have that, so our recipe for success needs contributions from a lot of guys. We need to have balance and we need to have a lot of guys putting their two cents in. Having four guys in double figures and out-rebounding them, that's our recipe for success."

Coach Torgalski on his postgame locker room speech...
"All I said was really five words. I thanked them and I told them that I was proud of them. That's all I had to say after that one. They know what the win means and what it means to me, and I know it meant a lot to them. It's been a long 10 games, especially with the way we've lost some of them. For them to come out and fight when they could have folded a few times, I was just very proud of them."

Inside the Box Score

• Elmira shot 45.6 percent (26-of-57) from the floor, as compared to Ithaca's 37.5 field goal percentage (21-of-56).
• Both teams ended the game with eight makes on 23 attempts from 3-point range (34.8 percent).
• Ithaca had more points off of turnovers, 13-to-2, but the Soaring Eagles scored more second chance points, 16-to-10.
• EC out-rebounded the Bombers, 39-to-29.
• Four players scored double figures for the Purple and Gold, led by Ischiropoulos with 17, 12 of which came in the second half.
• Senior forward Matt Davis '17 had an outstanding game in the low post, finishing with 12 points and a game-high-tying eight rebounds.
• Both Cuffee and Jesse Adelson '20 netted 11 points.
• Ischiropoulos and Adelson each made a trio of 3-pointers.
• Justin Porrett '19 hauled in eight boards, tied for the team lead, and dished out a game-high eight assists.
• Kyle McCreery '20 scored eight points, six of which came from 3-point range.
• Riley Thompson paced Ithaca with 12 points, followed by Chasin with 11.
• Chasin hauled in a team-leading eight boards and collected seven dimes.

News and Notes

• Elmira snapped a 10-game losing streak to improve to 3-12 on the season.
• The win was EC's first inside E8 play this season.
• The Soaring Eagles earned their first win over Ithaca at Speidel Gymnasium since last doing so on January 15, 2013.
• Elmira held Ithaca to a season-low 63 points.
• Four Soaring Eagles scored double-digit points for the first time since January 7th at Stevens.
• EC's 45.6 field goal percentage is its second-highest of the season and the best since Elmira's last win on November 26th over Vassar College.
• Elmira's plus-10 rebound margin is also its best since the win over the Brewers.
• Eleven turnovers are tied for the fewest committed by the Soaring Eagles this season.
• Ischiropoulos scored in double figures for the fifth time this season.
• Ischiropoulos has made at least three 3-pointers in each of his five double-digit games.
• Adelson scored 11 points and made three treys for the second straight game.
• Davis' 12 points are a new single-game career high.
• Cuffee netted double digits for the sixth time this season.
• Porrett's eight rebounds are a season high, while his eight assists are tied for the second-most he's recorded in a game this season.

 
Up Next
Elmira will look to build off of its first league win of the 2016-17 season on Tuesday, January 24th, when the Soaring Eagles host the Golden Flyers of Nazareth College. The E8 tilt will tip-off at 8:00 p.m.