Skip To Main Content

Home of the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers

Men's Basketball Squanders Second Half Lead in Loss to St. John Fisher

Joe Venniro - Assistant Sports Information Director

| 1/8/2005 5:59:34 PM

Click here for game statistics

PITTSFORD, NY - The RIT Men's Basketball team let a 10-point second half lead slip away as the 18th-ranked St. John Fisher Cardinals used an 18-1 run to regain the lead and hand the Tigers its first Empire 8 defeat, 84-72 in front of 600 fans at the Manning Napier Varsity Gym on Saturday afternoon.

Senior Jeff Sidney scored 22 points for the Cardinals, while Nick Bennett grabbed 15 rebounds.  St. John Fisher improves to 10-0 for just the second time in school history and will likely be the top-seed in the J.P. Morgan Chase Scholarship when the seedings are announced on Sunday evening.

Senior forward Kyle Goff (Manassas, VA/Stonewall Jackson) (Manassas, VA/Stonewall Jackson) led the Tigers with 17 points and nine rebounds.  Senior Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) and junior Fran Snyder (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon St. Jude) (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon-St. Jude) each scored 13 points in the loss.

The Tigers trailed 21-13 early on, but went on a 11-0 run to take a 24-21 midway through the first half.  The teams traded baskets for the remaninder of the first half and went into the break knotted at 40.

RIT used a 10-0 run over a three minute span early in the second half to take a 52-42 lead with 15:34 remaning.  Junior guard Drew Martin (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta) (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta) was tremendous during this stretch, scoring five points and making three big defensive plays to spur the rally.  Martin finshed with seven points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals. 

The Tigers shot just 37.5 percent from the field in the second half, including just 2-of-10 from the 3-point arc.  St. John Fisher out-rebounded RIT 42-35 and made 27-of-32 free throws (84.4 percent) to secure the win.

RIT (5-5, 1-1 Empire 8) will return to action on Wednesday in the first round of the 2005 J.P. Morgan Chase Scholarship Tournament.  The seedings and game times will be announced tomorrow evening.  RIT will be hosting the semi-finals and finals of the tournament on January 14th and 15th at the Clark Gym.