It came down to a last-second three-ball by Dan Anderson, but the St. Lawrence University men's basketball team suffered a narrow 55-52 loss to Ithaca, marking their first home defeat of the season on Saturday afternoon.

Adam Dudzinski recorded a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Anderson also added 16 points.

With the loss, St. Lawrence is now 8-9 overall and 6-4 in Liberty League play, though they remain fourth in the conference standings.

The Saints went up 5-0 behind a three-pointer from Jlin Brown and a putback by Dudzinski, but that would be their only lead of the first half. Ithaca posted six unanswered to move into a 6-5 lead, then extended from there. Anderson briefly kept the Saints within striking distance by scoring six straight points, but the Bombers closed the half on a strong, nine-point run, sending the Saints into the break trailing 39-23.

In the second half, the Saints scored slowly, creeping their way back from a 16-point deficit. Aidan Phelan worked hard off the bench, coming up and scoring in key situations to keep the Saints in the game. Despite forcing fouls, the Saints were unable to capitalize at the free-throw line, while Ithaca gained a significant advantage in bench scoring.

The Saints were able to hold the Bombers to 50 points for four minutes in the latter part of the half. In this time, St. Lawrence scored nine to get them within four points. They pushed the lead down to three and Anderson got a contested look at the buzzer, but his offering sailed wide and sealed the road win for Ithaca.



In addition to his points, Anderson added seven steals to help on the defensive side of the basketball. Brown narrowly missed a double-double, posting eight points and nine rebounds. Dudzinski and Colton Suriano each had three steals as well.

The Saints will return to action next weekend with games against Vassar and Bard.