| 2/9/2003 2:07:01 AM

PITTSFORD, N.Y.—St. John Fisher Broke RIT’s win streak and tied for first place in the Empire 8 with a 91-78 victory over the Tigers. In front of a packed gym at Manning-Napier Varsity Gymnasium Fisher’s Aaron Berwanger (Silver Springs, N.Y.) started the scoring with a three-pointer off a pass from Matt St. Croix (Watertown, N.Y.). The Tigers quickly answered with a bucket by 6-10 center Jesse Foote (Lockwood, N.Y./Spencer-Van Ettan) (Lockwood, N.Y.). Both teams traded bucket-for-bucket until midway into the first half when the Cardinals went on a 12-0 run over the next 1:32 Mike McGee (Batavia, N.Y.) goes 3-for-3 from 3-point range in 1:02 span :30 seconds later Raymie Auman (Angelica, N.Y.) made a 3 to close out the first half with the 38-31 advantage.

Heading into the second half RIT’s three leading scorers only accounted for six of the Tigers 31 points. Again Cardinals defense held RIT scoreless until the 17:58 mark when Foote would connect after grabbing the rebound. The Tigers brought the game within 10 but would not get any closer for the remainder of the game. Senior Dan Cerro (Union Springs led the second half charge netting 16 of his 23 points. Cerro went 3-6 from behind the arch.

The combination of St. John Fisher’s three-point attack and their defensive efforts proved to be the key component for their victory. Stanton, who averages 14.2 ppg, was held to five points as well as Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) (Buffalo, N.Y.) only tallied four.

Four Cardinals scored in double figures in McGee with 17, Nick Ripple (Hornell, N.Y.) with 14, Nick Bennett (Binghamton, N.Y.) and Cory Hepburn (New York, N.Y.) added 13 and 10, respectively.