ELMIRA, N.Y. -- In what turned into a shootout on Pat Thompson '75 Court on Saturday afternoon, the Elmira College men's basketball team was edged by Empire 8 Conference foe Nazareth, 95-89, in the Soaring Eagles' penultimate home contest of the 2019-20 campaign.

Prior to today's contest, the Elmira men honored their four members of the Class of 2020; Jesse Adelson '20, Jeremy Every '20, Kyle McCreery '20 and Billy Smith '20.

Every led the way for the Purple and Gold (2-19, 1-9 E8) on Saturday afternoon, with a career-high 27 points on 7-of-13 (53.8%) shooting from the floor and a perfect 13-of-13 (100%) mark from the charity stripe. Shawn Backus '21 and McCreery rounded out Elmira's double-digit scorers with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Stephen Gabel paced the hot-shooting Golden Flyers (17-4, 9-1 E8) with 26 points.

Nazareth's accuracy from the field may the difference inside Speidel Gymnasium, as the Golden Flyers knocked down 60% of their shots (33-for-55) from the floor and 54.5% (6-for-11) of their attempts from deep. Elmira knocked down a respectable 42.6% (29-for-68) of its attempts but was unable to keep pace with Nazareth from beyond the arc.

In a tightly contested first half, the Soaring Eagles battled back from as many as eight points down on numerous occasions to keep pace with the high-powered offense of Nazareth. With a little over five minutes left to play, Nazareth's Stephen Gabel put the visitors up 29-21 with a make from behind the arc. EC answered with two consecutive makes from Rashaad Nurse '22 and Kyle Kokoskie '22, to cut the Golden Flyers lead to four.

The Purple and Gold kept up the pressure and McCreery eventually knotted the game at 31-31 with a 3-pointer. Nazareth kept up the back-and-forth from there, as a jumper from Mason Weir '21 kept EC within striking distance at 37-35. The Golden Flyers had the final say in the half, however, as Nazareth scored five straight points to take the lead at the half time break.

The Golden Flyers kept their foot on the gas pedal coming out of the half and eventually upped their lead to a 21-point margin with just over eight minutes left in regulation. Despite the deficit, EC continued to chip away as time continued to wind down. Every made it a 10-point game after finishing through a foul to complete a three-point play with 1:59 on the clock. A bucket from Backus made it 90-82 with just over 30 seconds left in regulation. It was too little, too late, for the Soaring Eagles, however, as Nazareth walked away with the victory.

News and Notes

• EC recognized its four members of the Class of 2020: Jesse Adelson '20, Jeremy Every '20, Kyle McCreery '20 and Billy Smith '20.
• Elmira's 89 points were a season-high.
• The Purple and Gold knocked down a season-best 27 free throws.
• EC received 31 points from its bench compared to 18 from the Golden Flyers.
• Every's 27 points marked a career-best.
• Every knocked down a career-high 13 free throws.
• Backus scored in double figures for the third consecutive game.
• Backus led the team with a game-high-tying eight rebounds.
• McCreery tied his season-high with 11 points.

Up Next
The Soaring Eagles return to Pat Thompson '75 court tomorrow afternoon for their final home game of the season when they host the Cardinals of St. John Fisher at 2:00 p.m.