ELMIRA, N.Y. – The Elmira College Soaring Eagles men's basketball team hosted the Cardinals of St. John Fisher University for an Empire 8 conference matchup inside Speidel Gymnasium on Friday evening. The Soaring Eagles fought hard but eventually dropped the contest to St. John Fisher 73-64.
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Tyler Cardello started the scoring off for the Soaring Eagles with a pair of free throws. Cardello spun inside, made a layup, capping off a 6-0 run to start the game for EC. Cardello continued his strong start a few minutes later, adding a three pointer to his scoring total, assisted by Jude Wilkins. AJ Graham got some space inside, making a layup, as Elmira held the advantage early. The Cardinals answered with a 10-1 scoring run, going ahead for the first time. Alec Mercer hit a three pointer that stopped the Cardinal's momentum. Kelton Brown made a pair of layups, scoring four consecutive points for the Soaring Eagles. The teams traded layups throughout the final minutes of the first half, the Cardinals holding a 28-24 advantage going into halftime. The Soaring Eagles shot 33 percent from the field in the first half, compared to 30 percent for the Cardinals.

Emmanuel Karkari-Mensah hit a three pointer to get the Soaring Eagles going in the second half. A layup by Brown and a pair of free throws from Cardello put Elmira ahead two minutes into the half. The Cardinals responded over the next seven minutes with a 15-2 scoring run to move ahead by 12. Daemon Thomas hit a jumper to halt the run and give Elmira some momentum. Some free throws for EC capped off a 9-3 scoring run that cut the deficit to six. Carter Seeberger hit a three-pointer from the corner with six minutes remaining. An 8-3 scoring run for the Cardinals put them up 60-47. Cardello made layups on back-to-back possessions, but the Cardinals answered with layups of their own. Mercer and Wilkins added layups to that cut the deficit to eight points. Amin Ba-Ahmad added a layup of his own, but time would run out on the Soaring Eagles, the Cardinals holding a 73-64 advantage at the final buzzer.

LEADERS
Offensively, Cardello led with 15 points and seven rebounds while Brown scored eight points and tallied six rebounds. Karkari-Mensah and Mercer notched 11 points each.
 
UP NEXT
The Soaring Eagles are back home for a conference matchup with the Golden Flyers of Nazareth University on Saturday, February 14^th where they will honor the senior class. Tip-off is set for 4PM.