Posted: Dec 29, 2009
CLEVELAND, Ohio--Ithaca opened the Bill Sudeck Holiday Classic with a 96-88 win over Roanoke Tuesday evening. The win was the fifth-straight for the Bombers (7-2) as they will play in the championship game Wednesday at 4 p.m. The Maroons fell to 4-4 on the season.
Kendrick Chittock (Auburn, OH, University School)and Parrish Walker (Greensboro, NC, Dudley)led four Maroon scorers in double-figures with 18 points on the night. But they couldn't match the performances of Ithaca's three players with 20-plus points, including junior Chris Cruz-Rivaswho netted a career-high 26 to lead the Bombers.
Freshman Sean Rossi had 17 assists in the win, setting a new school record. Rossi's previous best was 12 assists, set in the season-opening win over Hobart. He has 82 assists on the season. As a team, the Bombers tallied 28 assists, the sixth-highest total in school history.
Trailing for most of the game, Roanoke took a 78-77 lead with six minutes to play in the game. After a Phil Barera jumper reclaimed the lead for the Bombers, a Maroon three-pointer by Matt Crizer (Covington, VA, Alleghany)gave Roanoke an 81-79 lead. Barera again scored to tie the game, and a layup from Cruz-Rivas gave the Bombers the lead for good.
Both teams traded buckets over the next four minutes as a Melvin Felix (Caguas, Puerto Rico, Salem)layup put the Maroons within two with 2:17 to go. A 9-2 Ithaca run in the final minutes sealed the victory.
Roanoke shot 49.3% from the floor compared to Ithaca's 46.3% and out-rebounded the Bombers, 44-40. After shooting a mere 38.2% in the first half, the Maroons blistered the nets in the second, connecting on 22-of-37 shots (59.5%). Roanoke also held a 54-40 advantage in points in the paint.
Up 43-39 with under a minute to play in the first half, the Bombers scored seven unanswered points to extend the advantaged entering halftime, 50-39. Cruz-Rivas hit a pair of free-throws to close the half.
Jordan Marcus made a pair of three-point field goals in the opening minutes of the second half to extend the lead to a game-high 17. They continued to control the tempo of the game and held a 71-59 lead with 12:05 to play.
Roanoke woke up and went on a 13-2 run the next 3:20 to bring the Maroons back in the game. Felix sparked the run with a three-pointer and capped it with a layup off an assist from Corey Poindexter (Pulaski, VA, Pulaski County/Hargrave)to cut the Ithaca lead to one, 73-72 with 8:45 left in regulation.
Barera and Marcus each scored 24 points to lead Ithaca. Barera also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season.
Crizer finished with 15 points, a team-best eight rebounds and four assists. Michael McGeough (Danville, VA, George Washington)chipped in 12 points along with seven rebounds while Logan Singleton (Roanoke, VA, Hidden Valley)added nine points and seven rebounds.
The men will take on the loser of the Tuesday matchup between Thiel and tournament-host Case Western tomorrow in the consolation game at 2 p.m.
Check out more information on Roanoke's new athletics website at http://maroons.roanoke.edu/. The website features top stories, scores, stats, photo galleries, archive information and much more. Make sure to sign up for text alerts to get athletic updates sent right to your phone. You can sign up by going to the athletics homepage and click “Get Text Alerts” on the right.
Did you know you can view all home games live online? Click on the “Watch Games Live” ad from the athletics homepage to get live webcasts of each home athletic scheduled event. You can also access live stats for each home event and select away games by clicking our “Live Stats” link on the athletic homepage. To keep up to date with Maroon athletics from your mobile phone or PDA, please visit m.roanoke.edu/sports.
Did you know you can view all home games live online? Click on the “Watch Games Live” ad from the athletics homepage to get live webcasts of each home athletic scheduled event. You can also access live stats for each home event and select away games by clicking our “Live Stats” link on the athletic homepage. To keep up to date with Maroon athletics from your mobile phone or PDA, please visit m.roanoke.edu/sports.
