Ithaca, NY – A last second heave from Steve DeRegis came up short as the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team lost a nail-biter to Ithaca College, 66-63, in Liberty League action Friday night.

The Golden Knights saw their record fall to 8-6 overall and 4-3 in the Liberty League, while the Bombers pushed their record to 8-5 and 5-1. Clarkson heads to Union in hopes of a weekend split.

Clarkson trailed by only two in the final minute and had a chance to take the lead late, but Jack Dalgety's 3-point attempt with time ticking down was shy of the rim. After a foul, Logan Wendell made the second of two tries to give Clarkson one final shot to tie the contest, but DeRegis had to shoot a 75-footer without the benefit of much momentum to end the contest.

The first half saw the teams seesaw back and forth with neither ever getting much of a foothold. Clarkson did not trail for the first seven minutes of the contest, taking the early lead on a Braden Burns 3-pointer and holding a small margin for most of the opening moments. The Knights led by as many as five points before Ithaca battled back, taking the lead briefly on a Jaylon O'Neal pull up jumper at 12:27. From that point, the Bombers had their own mini-run, gaining a four-point lead five minutes later on a 3-pointer from Jose Padilla. However, that lead would also evaporate and the two teams exchanged the lead six times in the final five minutes of the half, with Ithaca eventually taking a small one-point lead into the locker room.

Ithaca shot 59.1% from the floor in the first half, but Clarkson countered with 11 offensive rebounds and eight second-chance points while also going 8-for-8 from the free throw line. The Knights did well in the first half on Ithaca's top two scorers holding Logan Wendell and Evan Cabral, who average nearly 35 points per game combined, to just five first-half points. However, Jaylon O'Neal almost doubled his season average in the first half with a game-high 16 points.

The second half started similarly to the way the first ended as the two teams again traded the lead and ties on numerous occasions. Clarkson gained its third five-point lead of the game when Matthew Parent hit a 3-pointer at the 11:40 mark, but Ithaca immediately responded and tied the game thanks to five straight points from Alex Penders, making it 51-51 past the midway point of the period. Clarkson would never be tied or in the lead again, but the Knights remained within striking distance throughout. Ithaca expanded the lead to six at 5:12 following a free throw from Evan Cabral, only to see the Knights chip away at the gap. Matteo Sinon drove to the rim for a layup at 1:37 to put the deficit at one (62-61), but Aidan Holmes dropped in a 3-pointer on the next possession for the Bombers, which proved to be the winning points.

Braeden Burns had 15 points to lead the Knights and teammates Finn Cork and Jack Dalgety tossed in 14 and 13, respectively, with Cork coming up one rebound short of a double-double and Dalgety finding teammates for five assists.

For Ithaca, O'Neal led the team with 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting. Holmes and Cabral each scored 11 points for the Bombers.