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ONEONTA, N.Y. (February 28, 2014) – The second-seeded Stevens Institute of Technology men's basketball team will play third-seeded Nazareth College Friday night at 6 p.m. in the semifinals of the Empire 8 Championship hosted by No. 1 seed Hartwick College.
 
Should the Ducks defeat Nazareth, they will advance to take on the winner of Hartwick and fourth-seeded Alfred University in the title game at 3 p.m. Saturday. All the action from the Empire 8 Men's Basketball Championship will be webcast live at www.Empire8.TV.
 
Stevens and Nazareth met twice in the regular season with the Ducks taking both games in thrilling fashion as the two teams seemed extremely evenly matched. The Ducks won the first meeting at Naz in overtime after a game-tying buzzer-beater from senior guard Andrew Meszaros (Phoenixville, Pa.). In the second matchup, senior guard Phillip DeSeignora (Boston, Mass.) hit a big three to tie the game at 67 with 43 seconds left and forced a steal on the next Golden Flyer possession which led to a pair of free throws at the line from Meszaros. The Ducks ended up winning 73-69, closing the game on a 9-2 run.
 
Stevens has been led all season by senior guard Matt Skrelja (Clark, N.J.) who was named first-team all-conference on Thursday. He is second on the team in scoring, second in rebounding, first in assists and first in steals. He is second in the league in steals, first in assists and cracks the top-15 in points, minutes played and rebounding as well.
 
Second-team All-Empire 8 pick junior forward Patrick Sabatino (Westfield, N.J.) leads the Ducks in scoring, and Meszaros has been excellent as well, averaging over 10 points per game and a team-best 7.1 rebounds per game. Junior forward Kenny Gan (Hillsborough, N.J.) has had a strong year as well, giving the Ducks excellent defense, passing and rebounding, while sophomore guard Evan Klimchak (Readington, N.J.) is averaging 12.9 points per game and has hit 45 three-pointers this season. DeSeignora has led the Ducks off the bench, averaging 9.8 points per game, catching fire of late and converting 41.1 percent of his attempts from long range and canning a team-high 51 triples to date.
 
Nazareth is led by senior guard Jack Giles (Fayetteville, N.Y.) and senior forward Brad Ford (Victor, N.Y.) who both were named first-team All-Empire 8. Ford leads the team in scoring and rebounding, while Giles is second in scoring, first in assists and shoots 43.0 percent from long range.
 
Nazareth earned the No. 3 seed and a share of the Empire 8 regular-season title via a 10-4 record in the conference. The Golden Flyers are 18-7 overall. Stevens earned a share of the regular-season crown with an identical 10-4 E8 mark and is 17-8 overall.
 
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