ROCHESTER, NY – A last-second shot from Alfred's Nick Schmidt grazed off the iron and top-seed Nazareth escaped with a 73-72 victory Friday night to advance to the Empire 8 Championship game at 4 p.m. Saturday.  Junior Jake Burgio had a monster night for Nazareth, with 26 points (11-for-14), including some timely buckets down the stretch – he also had seven rebounds.
 
The Golden Flyers (19-7 overall) will take on the winner of No. 2 Stevens and No. 3 Utica in Saturday's Championship, with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line.
 
The lead was exchanged six times in the final five minutes.  Tyler Stenglein gave Nazareth the advantage for good with 1:27 remaining, converting two free throws.  He scored 14 of his 21 points (7-for-12) in the second half.

Nazareth appeared to have the game in hand after Burgio hit on-of-two free throws with :11 seconds remaining to push the lead to 73-69.  Alfred, however, had some late-game heroics with Scotty Stopera burying a 3-pointer after being fouled with :02 seconds on the clock.  A missed free throw, followed by the off-target jumper from Schmidt sealed the win for the Golden Flyers.

Alfred opened the scoring after winning the tipoff, but Stenglein answered for Nazareth with a 3-pointer to start an early scoring run. Brief 6-2 and 5-0 spurts gave the Golden Flyers a 13-7 advantage just five minutes in as both teams employed fast-paced offenses to open the game. A massive block from Daniel Jacob got the already animated crowd rocking thirty seconds later.

Nazareth started to drain the clock, mounting a lead with a series of buckets taken as the shot clock expired. The Golden Flyers extended their lead to 32-21 with five minutes remaining in the first half, but a 9-2 run by Alfred closed to the score to a seven point difference at the intermission.

Burgio was nearly unstoppable in the first half, shooting 7-9, including making his only three-point attempt. He led all players at the break with 15 points; Jacob and Stenglein each added 7. As a team, Nazareth shot 53.1% from the field in the first half.  Stopera paced Alfred with 11 points, knocking down all three of his shots from beyond the arc.

Alfred started the second half with an 11-5 run to take a one-point advantage, its first lead since the opening play. Nazareth responded with 10 unanswered points, and a deep three from Cody Green put an exclamation point on the run. The Saxons refused to fold, and the Golden Flyers' lead slowly dwindled to one with five minutes left.

Stephen Gabel contributed six points and 10 boards, while Brendan Wind dished out a game-high eight assists.