| 1/10/2003 9:49:04 PM

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Rochester Institute of Technology men's basketball reserve guard Fran Snyder (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon St. Jude) scored 15 second-half points and 19 for the night to lead RIT to a 65-55 victory in its Empire 8 opener against St. John Fisher Friday night in Clark Gymnasium.

The Tigers (6-2, 1-0 Empire 8) trailed 29-27 at the break, but fell behind by six points at 40-34 with 14:44 to go in the second half. The teams traded baskets over the next four minutes before Snyder sparked a 16-5 run midway through the second half with his his first of two second-half three-pointers at the 10:37 mark to tie the game at 43-43. Snyder had eight of the Tigers' 16 points during the run as RIT built an eight-point cushion with 3:59 to go leading 56-48.

Snyder maintained RIT's lead scoring five of RIT's final nine points in the final 2:56 of the game including 3-for-4 from the charity stripe.

Mike Stanton added 15 points and eight boards, while Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) chipped in 10 points.

St. John Fisher was paced by Nick Ripple with 21 points, while Jeff Sidney added 10 and five rebounds.

RIT resumes action on Saturday hosting Alfred University at 4 p.m., while St. John Fisher travels Nazareth on Saturday.