Potsdam, NY – Freshman Braeden Burns and grad student Ryan Miles-Ferguson combined for 59 points, but the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team ended up on the short end of an overtime shootout against Ithaca College, falling 109-102 on Friday evening at Alumni Gymnasium.

The Golden Knights dropped to 9-4 overall and 3-3 in the Liberty League, while Ithaca moved to 9-3 and 4-1 in conference games. Clarkson will face Union College on Saturday afternoon.

The two top scoring teams in the Liberty League did not disappoint in the long run, but the teams both started off a little slow in the beginning. Jack Dalgety hit a pair of 3-pointers early as Clarkson picked up the early lead, and held a 16-12 advantage after an Aydin Kocak jumper at 11:27. The two teams then traded 10-0 runs, as Ithaca scored 10 straight in the next three minutes, capped by a Logan Wendell jumper-and-one, while a Ryan Miles-Ferguson layup finished off the Knights' responding 10-0 run in the two minutes that followed. The Knights held the lead for the remainder of the half and headed to the locker room up by three.

In the second half, Clarkson pushed its margin to 10 points when Braeden Burns scored on the interior at 17:27, and the Knights expanded to 11 points on a Ryan Miles-Ferguson 3-pointer just 34 seconds later. However, Ithaca pulled to within one with a 15-5 run over four minutes, capped by an Alex Penders 3-pointer. Ithaca then continued to hold Clarkson in check, building its advantage to as many as six on two occasions midway through the half, with the second one coming at 7:17. In just over two minutes, Clarkson took the lead with a 10-1 run as the Knights were able to beat the Bombers press.

It appeared as if Clarkson would take home the win, with the Golden Knights leading by 10 points with 1:45 to go and even up by eight with under a minute remaining. However, Ithaca got baskets at key moments, including a 3-pointer with 10.7 seconds left from Logan Wendell to tighten the game to two. On the next possession, the Bombers were able to force a jump ball and gain possession in their offensive end. Although Wendell was stopped on the base line, he found Triston Wennersten for a last second layup as time expired to send the game to overtime.

In the extra session, Ithaca made its free throws while Clarkson finally started to struggle from the line, shooting 5-for-9 in the final five minutes against the Bombers' 8-for-10 showing. In the first 40 minutes, Clarkson had only missed four free throws out of 31 tries.

Burns finished with 31 points, which included 29 over the final 25 minutes of the contest (two points in the first half). Ryan Miles-Ferguson was also busy, scoring 28 points, and Jack Dalgety netted 18 points. Frankie Rainville also tossed in 17 points for Clarkson.

For Ithaca, Wendell had 22 points, five boards, and five assists, Wennersten had 25 points on 9-for-12 shooting and Evan Cabral scored 22 on 7-for-8 shooting. Andrew Geschickter also scored 18 points, including two four-point plays in the final 90 seconds of regulation.