BOXSCORE | CUMULATIVE STATS | D&C STORY
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Third-seeded Nazareth erased a 12-point second-half deficit Friday and went on to hand second-seeded Geneseo its first men's basketball defeat of the season, 70-68, in the semifinals of the JPMorgan Chase Scholarship Tournament at the University of Rochester's Palestra.

The victory boosted Nazareth's overall record to 10-2 and advanced the Golden Flyers to Saturday's title game at 8 p.m. against top-seeded and top-ranked Rochester. Geneseo, now 9-1, will play in Saturday's consolation game against Brockport at 1 p.m. Nazareth lost at home to Rochester, 68-51, on Nov. 20. The Yellowjackets are 11-0 after defeating Brockport in the other semifinal game, 75-70, and are ranked first nationally by d3hoops.com.

"It was an ugly game, but we gutted it out," said Nazareth Coach Mike Daley. "Our defensive intensity was constant and that's what won it for us."

Geneseo led 44-32 with less than 17 minutes to play following a basket by Jeff Howe and the Blue Knights were still up by 10 with less than seven minutes to play. Nazareth then embarked on an 18-6 scoring spree that ended with Nazareth ahead 66-64 with 1:53 left.

Sophomore Corey McAdam hit a pair of free throws with 3:03 left to cut the lead to 64-62 and then after a steal, McAdam found Rayvon Higdon with a length-of-the-court pass for a game-tying dunk with 2:32 to go.

McAdam scored on a driving layup with 1:53 to go to give Nazareth its first lead, 66-64, since early in the first half. Geneseo tied the scored again, 66-66, on two free throws by Joe Kling with 1:25 left. Jeff DeHimer hit one of two free throws for Nazareth with 1:06 to go and McAdam alertly grabbed the offensive rebound and made the put-back off the miss of the second shot to give Nazareth a 69-66 lead.

Kling scored again to cut it to 69-68, then after a Nazareth turnover, Geneseo's Scott Morton missed a baseline jumper and Joe Canori grabbed the rebound and made the resulting free throw to make the final 70-68.

Canori finished with 22 points with four three-pointers. McAdam had 17 points, including 13 in the second half. DeHimer finished with a game-high 10 rebounds to go with nine points.

Morton led all scorers with 24 points. Kling added 15 and Brandon Simpson had 10.