Utica, NY - After an 8-2 (8-2 Empire 8) regular season the Utica College men's basketball team is gearing up for the Empire 8 conference tournament. The two seeded Pioneers will host three seeded Nazareth College on Friday at 5:30 p.m. 
 
How to Watch: Fans can watch or follow along with live stats by visiting https://bit.ly/2wtxUV5. 
 
First Time for Everything: Since the Empire 8 tournament began at the conclusion of the 2003-04 regular season, UC has never hosted a conference tournament game at Miga Court. That's all set to change come Friday when Nazareth travels to Utica for the 5:30 p.m. tipoff. The Pioneers will be able to share this program milestone with fans for the first time this season as 65 UC students, faculty and staff will be welcomed into the Clark Athletic Center for the game. 
 
Tournament History: This will be the Pioneers 10th time participating in the E8 tournament while also being the program's third time qualifying as a two seed. This season is also the fourth time in the past five seasons UC has been a part of the conference tournament, it's best such stretch since making the tournament five times between 2003-09. The Pioneers own a 4-9 record all-time in tournament play with its most recent win coming in the 2017-18 semifinals against Stevens. That season is also the last time Utica appeared in the E8 championship game where they dropped a nail biter to Nazareth 66-64. 
 
We've Met Before: One of Utica's two losses this season came at the hands of Nazareth in Rochester on March 22 by a score of 72-63, also the last time the Pioneers lost this season. The Golden Flyers led UC in the game by as many as 19 points before the Pioneers clawed back to make it a single digit game. Kimedrick Murphy (Hudson, NY/Hudson) finished the game with a double-double while Nazareth was led by Jordan Haggard who finished the game with 25 points and five rebounds. 
 
Scouting Nazareth: Nazareth advanced to the Empire 8 semifinals after defeating Elmira 64-54 on Tuesday night. The Golden Flyers entered the tournament as a three seed while finishing the season with a 7-3 (7-2 Empire 8) record. Both of the team's conference losses came to St. John Fisher while also dropping one non-conference game to the University of Rochester on February 26. As a team Nazareth averaged 77.3 points per game on 44.4 percent shooting while holding opponents to 69.6 points per game on 41.3 percent shooting. They love to shoot the three ball as they attempted 294 shots from beyond the arc, the most in the conference, while converting on 31.6 percent of them. The Golden Flyers were also the worst free throw shooting team in the E8 converting on 61.6 percent of shots from the charity stripe. Stephen Gabel led the team averaging 16.9 points per game while shooting 50.7 percent from the field. 

What's Next: With a win the Pioneers will advance to the program's fifth conference championship game and its second in the last four seasons while a loss would end UC's season. The Empire 8 championship game will be hosted by the highest seed remaining, meaning Utica will only host if Sage defeats St. John Fisher. If Fisher wins, the E8 championship will be played in Rochester. No matter the location the game will take place on Sunday while the time is TBD.