Men's Hoops Beats Fisher

Brennan Coon

Sean Murphy led RIT to a 72-71 win over St. John Fisher.

| 1/24/2004 6:20:27 PM

ROCHESTER, NY- The RIT men's basketball squad took on St. John Fisher tonight at Clark Gymnasium, and pulled out a thrilling win, 72-71 to improve to 4-0 in the Empire 8 Conference.

St. John Fisher jumped out to an early 7-0 lead as the Tigers missed their first four shots of the game. But RIT got their offense going and cut the Cardinals' lead to 11-10 at the 15:33 mark. RIT's Fran Snyder (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon St. Jude) (Buffalo, NY), Luis Villalongo (Chicopee, Mass./Chicopee Comprehensive) (Chicopee, MA) and Fisher's Matt Morley traded three-point buckets back and forth as Fisher would jump out to as much as a nine-point lead, only to have it narrowed by the Tigers. Kyle Goff's jumper at 10:30 tied the score at 22. Fisher would not back down, though, and continued to battle for a three or four point lead for the next four minutes. RIT finally took the lead at 5:32 on a three-pointer by Matt Borthwick (Highland Mills, N.Y./Monroe-Woodbury) (Highland Mills, NY), but was only able to build a four point lead before Fisher tightened it up again. St. John Fisher took a 39-35 lead into halftime. RIT shot 51.9 percent from the floor in the first half, and got nine points out of leading scorer Villalongo for the half.

The second half was no less of a battle as the Cardinals once again had the lead, this time jumping out to a seven point, 45-38 margin. RIT was not to be denied as their offense tied it at 48 at 13:45 on three straight free throws by Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) (Buffalo, NY). The Tigers gradually built their lead to nine, due to points from Kyle Goff (Manassas, VA), Murphy, Villalongo, Tim Bacon (Massena, NY/Massena) (Massena, NY) and Drew Martin (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta) (Oneonta, NY). The Cardinals continued to battle, but the Tigers' defense stepped up and allowed RIT to lead by 11 at the 7:26 mark. Fisher, however, would not go quietly, as Sean O'Brien, Matt Morley, and Jeff Sidney all hit three-pointers to highlight a 10-0 Cardinals run over 6:13. RIT led by five with 27 seconds to play as both teams traded shots at the free throw line. With six seconds to play and the Tigers leading by four, Fisher's Raymie Auman hit a three to bring the score within one, but the comeback fell short as RIT was able to hold on for the one-point win. Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) led the Tigers with 16 points and eight boards on the night.

The Tigers improve to 9-6 on the season and will face Nazareth next on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Clark Gym.