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ALFRED, NY – Senior Jake Burgio scored a career-high 33 points and led four players into double-digit scoring for the Nazareth College men's basketball team but it was not enough as host Alfred scored a 94-83 victory in the regular season finale in the Terry S. Galanis Family Arena Tuesday night.

The victory gave Alfred (20-4 overall, 13-2 Empire 8) the regular season conference standings lead and the top seed in the Empire 8 Tournament that begins Friday. The Saxons will host No. 4 Stevens in one semifinal and Nazareth (18-7, 12-4) will face No. 3 St. John Fisher in the other semifinal at Alfred. The winners will meet Saturday for the Empire 8 title.

Burgio scored 19 of his 33 points in the first half but the Golden Flyers still trailed by 10 points at 49-39.

Besides Burgio, Tyler Stenglein (14 points), Chris Jones (12 points) and Brendan Wind (11 points) all reached double figures scoring for Nazareth. Burgio's 13 rebounds led the Golden Flyers.

Nazareth had an early lead when Jones connected on a short jumper for a 6-5 advantage 1:33 into the contest but Alfred responded with a 7-0 to take the lead for good. The Golden Flyers trimmed the lead to a basket at 33-31 with a Zach Stenglein 3-pointer but the Saxons scored the next six points to regain the lead and closed the half with a 10-point advantage.

A 3-pointer by Stephen Gabel with 6:25 left to play trimmed the lead to a single point at 70-69 and two minutes later a Tyler Stenglein jumper made it a two-point game but Alfred scored 10 of the next 12 points to regain control.

Alfred finished with 50.8% shooting from the field including 11-of-22 from 3-point range and also connected on 17-of-19 free throws. Nazareth was 34-for-70 from the field and made only 6-of-21 from 3-point range.