ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Host and seventh-seeded Nazareth scored a first-round upset Wednesday in the JPMorgan Chase Scholarship Tournament for men's basketball as junior
Corey McAdam and senior
Jeff DeHimer combined for 45 points in an 87-73 victory over second-seeded RIT.
The Golden Flyers (3-8) advanced to Friday's semifinals at RIT at 8:15 p.m. They will meet third-seeded Geneseo, a 61-59 winner over Brockport in another first-round game. RIT (8-4 overall) will play Friday at 3:30 p.m. in the consolation round against Brockport. The semifinal game will be carried on local radio station WYSL-AM (1040) and available online at
www.wysl1040.com.
Just five days after surrendering 122 points in a loss at Ithaca, Nazareth played perhaps its best game of the season in leading most of the game. McAdam was brilliant for the Golden Flyers as he delivered 23 points, 12 assists, six rebounds and five assists to fuel the offense. DeHimer contributed 22 points on 9 for 15 shooting with six rebounds. Freshman
Jordan Major added 15 points on 6 for 7 shooting, including 3 for 4 from three-point range.
Wednesday's game marked the fourth year in a row that Nazareth and RIT have squared off in the JPMorgan Chase Tournament and the 12th time in the last 14 years. In the first half, RIT led briefly at 23-22 on a three-pointer by Scott Young with 5:34 left. Nazareth then embarked on a 16-2 scoring run that featured nine points from Major and ended with the Golden Flyers' largest lead of the half, 38-25, with 1:14 left.
After RIT closed the deficit to eight, 38-30, Nazareth regained its double-digit advantage when senior
Chris Barrett nailed a long three-pointer just before the half ended to make it 41-30.
In the second half, RIT rallied to within six, 55-49, with 13:18 left, but Nazareth
Nazareth scored five straight points – three by McAdam, two by DeHimer – to keep a comfortable lead.
Nazareth stayed ahead thanks to some solid second-half shooting. The largest lead was at 87-71 following a basket by DeHimer with less than two minutes left. The Golden Flyers made 16 of 28 shots in the second half (57.1 percent), including 4 of 5 three-point tries. McAdam scored 14 of his points in the final 20 minutes.
Young was RIT's high scorer with 23 points, including seven three-pointers. Mark Carson combined 15 points with a game-high 11 rebounds and Adam Sweet scored 10.
Friday's game will be a rematch of last year's semifinal in which Nazareth edged Geneseo, 70-68, to reach the tournament final.
