TROY, NY -- The Union College men's basketball team put five student-athletes in double figures on its way to a 71-54 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) at East Campus Arena. The Dutchmen improve to 8-7 overall and 4-3 in the Liberty League, while the Engineers, who got a game-high 24 points from Andreas Kontopidis, drop to 10-8 and 4-5.

Union jumped out to a 6-0 lead on a pair of three-pointers, but the Engineers pulled to within two points, 13-11, eight minutes into the first half. An 8-2 run then put the visitors ahead by eight points, 21-13, four minutes later and Union made it an 11-point lead, 28-17, on a three-point shot by Greg King with five minutes left. The Dutchmen followed by scoring the next four points and went on to lead at halftime, 36-20. 

Wade McNamara had 16 points and eight rebounds and King registered a double-double of 13 points and 11 boards. Burgess scored 12 points (10 in the first half), Kevin Weckworth had 11 and Zachary Bouton finished with 10. Burgess added five assists and two steals. King's double-double was the first of his career and his 11 rebounds were a career high.

Kontopidis scored 11 points in the first 20 minutes for the Engineers, who connected on only 8 of 27 (29.6%) shot attempts. 

Rensselaer scored the first basket of the second half to get to within 14 points, 36-22, and got to within 12 points five minutes in, but could get no closer. Kontopidis made it 46-34 midway through, but Bouton and Burgess countered for a 52-36 lead with under 10 minutes to play.

Kontopidis made 8 of 16 shots, including 5 of 8 three-pointers, in his 24-point effort. He pulled down seven rebounds. Senior Brian Hatcher had eight points and eight rebounds for RPI. Union visits Clarkson University on Friday at 8 p.m.