| 2/14/2004 6:53:12 PM
Click For BoxscoreROCHESTER, NY- The men's basketball team improved to 9-2 in the Empire 8 with an exciting win over the Pioneers of Utica College tonight at Clark Gymnasium, 72-70.
The score went back and forth for the opening 4:32 before Utica opened up an eight-point lead at the 14:27 mark. The Pioneers were plagued by turnovers in the first half, giving the Tigers' John Johnson (Hamburg, N.Y./Frontier Central), Kyle Goff, and Fran Snyder (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon St. Jude) the opportunity to narrow the deficit to four. But Utica would not go away as they climbed back out to a ten-point lead at 9:41. Two Utica turnovers and two Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) three-pointers, however, helped RIT tie it up at 31-31 with 6:20 to play. Both teams battled the rest of the half, fighting over as much as a five-point margin the rest of the way. The Tigers took a 42-38 lead into halftime, due to their 60 percent shooting from the floor.
The second half was no less of a battle as neither team was able to take more than a six-point lead the entire twenty minutes. The Tigers took a lead, then Utica came back, and vice versa. But great efforts by Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North), Drew Martin (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta) and Jesse Foote (Lockwood, N.Y./Spencer-Van Ettan), as well as two more turnovers by the Pioneers allowed RIT to gain momentum, taking a 58-52 lead with 11 minutes to play. Utica grabbed the lead again with just under two minutes to play, 70-69, but a great second effort shot by Fran Snyder (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon St. Jude) as he was off-balance gave the Tigers a one-point advantage with just two seconds to play. A Utica foul saw Snyder hit one free throw, and despite a Tigers foul with 0:00.7 to play, the Pioneers could not get the shot to go, and RIT held on for the win. Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) (Buffalo, NY) led all scorers with 20 points on a night that honored seniors Luis Villalongo (Chicopee, Mass./Chicopee Comprehensive), John Johnson (Hamburg, N.Y./Frontier Central), Matt Borthwick (Highland Mills, N.Y./Monroe-Woodbury), and Steven King Memorial Award winner Jason Zawodzinski (Depew, NY/The Park School). RIT improves to 14-8 overall and will travel to face Nazareth next Tuesday at 8 p.m.
