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HOBOKEN, N.J. -- Nazareth's second-half rally fell short in Saturday's Empire 8 men's basketball contest against host Stevens as the Ducks outlasted the Golden Flyers 73-69. Nazareth trailed 62-50 midway through the second period before outscoring Stevens 17-2 to claim a 67-64 lead with 1:03 to play in regulation. The Ducks held off the Golden Flyers' furious rally with a three-point basket then connecting on all six of their free throws in the final minute. Seniors Brad Ford and Jack Giles scored 18 points apiece to lead the Golden Flyers in scoring.

Following the loss, Nazareth slips to 13-6 overall and 6-3 in the Empire 8. With the victory, Stevens improves to 14-5 overall and 8-2 in conference play. The Golden Flyers were trying to avenge a January 10th overtime loss to the Ducks in Saturday's game. Nazareth slides to fourth place in the conference standing with the loss. Stevens and Hartwick each have 8-2 conference records, and Alfred is currently in third place at 5-2.

Trailing 62-50 with under 10 minutes to play in regulation, sophomore Mitch Ford began the Golden Flyers' comeback with six consecutive points. After connecting on a pair of free throws, Ford made a two-point jumper and a layup. Classmate Maurice Mills followed with a jumper, and Brad Ford's layup with 5:50 to play trimmed Nazareth's deficit to 62-60.

The Ducks' Matt Skrelja converted two free throws to stretch Stevens' lead to two possessions, but Nazareth answered with the next seven points to take the three-point lead with 63 seconds to play. Mitch Ford tipped in a missed layup by Giles, then senior Scott Hayford connected on a three-point shot to give the Golden Flyers a 65-64 edge with 2:25 remaining. It was Nazareth's first lead since the first half. Giles capped the run with a pair of free throws to temporarily extend the Golden Flyers' lead.

On Stevens' ensuing possession, Phillip DeSeignore connected from outside the arc to tie the score at 67 points apiece. Andrew Meszaros added two free throws with 36 seconds to play to give Stevens the lead for good. The Ducks secured the victory by converting four additional free throws in the final 15 seconds.

Nazareth claimed a 6-0 lead in the opening 1:04 of the game following consecutive three-pointers by Brad Ford and Giles. DeSeignorea's three-pointer with 3:36 to play in the stanza gave the Ducks their largest lead of the period, 36-29. The Golden Flyers outscored the Ducks 12-6 over the final 3:14 to trim their deficit to one point at the break.

In addition to the 36 combined points from Giles and Brad Ford, Mitch Ford finished with 16 points on 7-8 shooting from the field. Hayford and Mills added nine points and six points, respectively, while senior Cody Sarkis chipped in two points. The Golden Flyers finished with a 39-28 advantage in total rebounds with the Ford brothers each collecting nine boards.

After shooting 16-27 (59.3 percent) in the opening half, Nazareth's offense cooled to 11-28 (39.3 percent) in the second half. Stevens cooled from 17-35 (48.6 percent) in the first period to 9-23 (39.1 percent) in the second, however, the Ducks connected on 14-17 free throws (82.4 percent) including 10-12 in the second half. The Golden Flyers had only 11 free throw attempts for the game and finished 4-11 (36.4 percent).

DeSeignora tallied 18 points to lead Stevens in scoring. Evan Klimchak had 16 points while Skrelja finished with 12 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Nazareth is in action again on February 7th when the Golden Flyers travel to Ithaca for an Empire 8 game. Nazareth returns to the Kidera Gymnasium on the 8th to host Houghton.