ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team got back on winning track on Friday evening with a wire-to-wire victory inside Ben Light Gymnasium, as the Bombers took down Liberty League foe Union College, 83-75. Friday night's contest was the Liberty League home opener for IC, which improved to 8-2 overall on the season and 3-0 in league play. Union drops to 4-4 and 1-2 in the Liberty League.

Ithaca wasted no time to build an early lead as sophomore Riley Thompson drilled back-to-back 3-pointers in the opening minute of the contest. After a Union timeout, the Bombers scored five more points to take an 11-0 advantage before the Dutchmen could get on the board at the 15:51 mark.

Thompson would score three more points after the timeout, as he finished the first half with 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 at the free throw line.

The Dutchmen battled back to a 15-10 difference over the next 1:52, but Ithaca answered with a 7-0 run to regain a double digit lead at 22-10 with 8:38 to play in the half. Freshman Bryan Karl netted five points during the spurt, while senior Marc Chasin accounted of the other basket.

Ithaca would maintain an 8-to-12 point lead over the next 3:07 until Union converted a layup to make the score 27-21 with 5:31 to go. Junior Miles Herman completed a three-point play to push Ithaca's advantage back out to nine at 30-21, but Union would score 10 of the next 14 points to close to within a 34-31 tally.

IC would quickly score five points within a 24-second span on a 3-pointer from Karl and a pair of makes at the line by junior Peter Ezema, which gave the Bombers a 39-31 edge with 2:10 left.

Each team could only score one more basket each for the rest of the half, as Ithaca took a 41-33 lead into the break.

Ithaca went 13-for-34 overall in the first half and converted 11-of-14 tries at the line, while Union was 10-for-37 from the floor and 10-of-12 at the stripe. Both teams pulled down 25 rebounds over the opening 20 minutes.

The Bombers came out of intermission with seven unanswered points on a jumper from Thompson, a 3-pointer by junior Matt Flood and a dunk by Herman within the opening 1:12 to push the disparity out to 48-33.

Over the next eight minutes of action, Chasin netted eight of his 18 points (16 second half points) on the evening, while Karl drilled another long range shot and Thompson sunk a jumper to increase the Bombers' edge to 62-44, which was the largest lead of the game.

The Dutchmen chipped away to a 66-53 difference with 8:28 to go, but four straight points from Chasin put the game back out to a 17-point spread at 70-53. Union continued to fight back over the ensuing six minutes, however, as it crept to within eight points at 73-65 with 2:36, but six combined points from Chasin and Flood sealed the victory for Ithaca.

Over the final 1:24, Thompson made three free throws and Flood added another. Union scored the final four points of the night with under a minute to remaining.

Thompson finished the contest with a game-high 24 points on 7-of-11 from the floor and 8-of-9 at the line. Chasin pulled down eight rebounds with three blocks and two assists to compliment his 18-point effort. Karl tallied a career-high 13 points on 3-of-4 from distance, while Flood added 10 points, seven boards and four assists.

Ezema chipped in nine rebounds and eight points, while Herman added five points, five boards and a pair of blocks. Freshman Cooper Macklin dished out five assists to go along with four steals. Senior Carroll Rich and sophomore Sebastian Alderete accounted for Ithaca's other five points on the night.

The Bombers shot 27-for-64 (42.2-percent) and went 22-for-33 at the line (66.7%). Ithaca also notched eight steals and six blocked shots, and assisted of 15 makes.

IC welcomes Hobart College to South Hill tomorrow afternoon for another Liberty League contest at 4 p.m.