PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Despite tallying 44 second-half points on Friday evening the Elmira College men's basketball program dropped its Empire 8 Conference opener on the road against Nazareth 85-65 inside Kidera Gymnasium. Bryan Adams '25 paced the Purple & Gold with 16 points and eight rebounds.
 
JUST THE BASICS:
SCORE: Elmira 65, Nazareth 85
LOCATION: Pittsford, New York | Kidera Gymnasium
TEAM RECORDS: Elmira (1-6, 0-1 E8), Nazareth (5-1, 1-0 E8)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Soaring Eagles would have a tough time getting things going offensively in the first half of the contest as Nazareth jumped out to an early 9-4 advantage through the opening three and a half minutes. Adams connected on back-to-back buckets for the Soaring Eagles to trim the deficit to 9-6 before a layup off the fastbreak by Adams made it 9-8 in favor of the Golden Flyers.

Quintel Clements '22 hit a jumper for the Purple & Gold at the 12:27 mark of the first half to cut the Nazareth lead to 16-12 before the Golden Flyers would go on a run to push the advantage to 26-12 with just under nine minutes left in the half. JJ Babcock '26 finished a layup in the paint to make it 31-15 and would add another bucket with 3:46 remaining to make it 33-18. Marc Anthony Artuz '24 closed the scoring in the half as a layup would fall for him with 34 seconds left on the clock.

Nazareth would lead by as many as 23 points early in the second half of the contest before Adams and Clements connected on a pair of buckets to cut the deficit to 53-36 with just over 14 minutes to play. The Soaring Eagles trimmed the deficit to 68-53 with just under seven minutes left on the clock as Brijon Warren '24 connected on a pair of shots at the free-throw line for the Purple & Gold.

Riley Spencer '26 would come off the bench down the stretch for the Soaring Eagles late in the second half and scored 11 of the Soaring Eagles' 12 points over the final 4:48 of the contest. Spencer drained a trey off an assist from Adams to cut the Golden Flyers' lead to 73-56 before hitting a jumper at the 3:35 mark. Riley continued his scoring run with a jumper at the 1:02 mark to make it an 82-63 contest before hitting a pair of last-second free throws for Elmira.

Adams finished the contest 6-of-17 from the field for Elmira to go along with eight boards and three steals. Clements tallied 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Spencer chipped in 11 points with a 4-of-6 effort. Nazareth took advantage of points in the paint against EC, tallying 42 in the contest, and made the most of scoring 17 points off 17 Elmira turnovers.

UP NEXT:
The Soaring Eagles return to the court on Saturday for an Empire 8 matchup on the road against St. John Fisher beginning at 4:00 P.M.