Utica, NY - The Utica College men's basketball team will wrap up its regular season at home on Thursday when they take on Elmira College for the second time in four days. 
 
Last Time Out: The Eagles and Pioneers played on Monday as UC came home with a come from behind 70-58 win. The team didn't hold its first lead of the game until 16:54 remaining in the second and didn't look back from there. Utica used a 23-2 run which spanned from the end of the first half through the first four minutes of the second half and never trailed from that point on. Thomas Morreale (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) led the Pioneers with 13 points while Kimedrick Murphy (Hudson, NY/Hudson) stuffed the box score with eight points, nine rebounds and four assists. 
 
Tale of Two Teams: Where the Pioneers have found success this season the Eagles have struggled. While UC has shot the third best from the field in the conference and has had the best shooting defense in the E8, Elmira finds itself as the worst shooting team in the conference. Utica boasts the best three point shooting percentage of any team in the E8, Elmira is near the bottom at 28 percent. The Pioneers have four players averaging 10 or more points per game, Elmira has one. However, the Eagles will have one more opportunity to put all that aside and spoil the Pioneers' chance at the two seed in the conference tournament. UC will look to continue its success against Elmira this season as they already own a 2-0 record against them. 
 
Can't be Cooled Down: Morreale hasn't taken his foot off the gas since this shortened season began. The Sophomore still holds the second best shooting percentage in the E8 at 59.4 percent by converting on 41 of his 69 shot attempts. He's made at least four field goals in his last three games while also grabbing four rebounds per game over the same span. 
 
Scouting Elmira: Shawn Backus is the team's only player averaging double figures in points as he has compiled 11.3 points per game in nine games this season on 37.1 percent shooting. Rashaad Nurse and Isiah Charles are the next two highest scorers on the Eagles as Nurse has put up 9.6 points per game while Charles has averaged 8.9. As noted above, Elmira is not a great shooting team averaging 35.6 percent from the field and 28.1 percent from three per game. However, the team gets plenty of help from its reserves as the Elmira bench outscored the Pioneers bench 38-21 on Monday. They have also battled down low this season averaging 36 rebounds per game to Utica's 37. 

Up Next: UC (7-2, 7-2 E8) will prepare for the Empire 8 tournament as they have already clinched a spot in it. Seeding, however, is still up for grabs. While St. John Fisher has first place locked down the Pioneers still have a chance of securing the number two seed with a little help from Nazareth. If Utica wins its final game against Elmira and Nazareth loses its remaining two to Fisher and Alfred, UC would jump Nazareth with an 8-2 record to the Golden Flyers' 7-3 record. However, if Nazareth wins one of its final two games they secure the two seed as they own the season tiebreaker over UC. Regardless, the Pioneers are in shape to host a game in the E8 tournament and as of right now would do so as the three seed.