The victory boosted Nazareth's overall record to 10-2 and advanced the Golden Flyers to Saturday's title game at 8 p.m. against the winner of the other semifinal match-up between top-seeded Rochester and fourth-seeded Brockport. Geneseo, now 9-1, will play in Saturday's consolation game at 1 p.m.
"It was an ugly game, but we gutted it out," said Nazareth Coach Mike Daley. "Our defensive intensity was constant and that's what won it for us."
Geneseo led 44-32 with less than 17 minutes to play following a basket by Jeff Howe. Geneseo's lead was still at 10, 58-48, with less than seven minutes to go. Nazareth then embarked on an 18-6 scoring spree to take a 66-64 lead with 1:53 left.
Sophomore Corey McAdam hit a pair of free throws with 3:03 left to cut the lead to 64-62 and then after a steal, McAdam found Rayvon Higdon with a length-of-th-court pass for a game-tying dunk with 2:32 to go.
McAdam scored on a driving layup with 1:53 to go to give Nazareth its first lead since early in the first half. Geneseo tied the scored again, 66-66, on two free throws by Joe Kling with 1:25 left. Jeff DeHimer hit one of two free throws for Nazareth with 1:06 to go and McAdam grabbed the offensive rebound and made the put back off the second miss to give Nazareth a 69-66 lead.
Kling scored again to cut it to 69-68, then after a Nazareth turnover, Geneseo's Scott Morton missed a baseline jumper and Joe Canori made the resulting free throw to make the final 70-68.
Canori finished with 22 points with four three-pointers. McAdam had 17 points, including 13 in the second half. DeHimer finished with a game-high 10 rebounds to go with nine points.
Morton led all scorers with 24 points. Kling added 15 and Brandon Simpson had 10.