TROY, N.Y. – Sophomore Jackson Mannix hit 11-of-15 shots to finish with a career-high 29 points as a hot-shooting Union College men's basketball team outlasted Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by a 72-69 score in a key Liberty League matchup on Tuesday night at RPI's East Campus Arena.
 
Mannix had a huge game to lead Union (8-7, 4-5 Liberty League) to a pivotal conference win, shooting 73.3 percent from the field and knocking down 7-of-9 attempts from long range – including six in a row at one point. Senior Kevin McNoble also came up big down the stretch to finish with 17 points, while freshman Mike Concannon hit 5-of-6 shots to end with 13 points off the bench.
 
Led by Mannix and Concannon, Union had an excellent shooting night, hitting 25-of-46 shots from the field (54.3 percent) and hitting at an even higher clip from beyond the arc (13-of-23, 56.5 percent). With Concannon leading the charge, the Union bench also outscored its RPI counterparts by a 23-5 margin.
 
For the second straight game, Union needed some big late-game plays to secure the victory. After RPI had scored 12 of 14 points to tie the game at 64 with 94 seconds left, Concannon came up with another huge late-game play, sinking a three from the top of the arc with the shot clock running down to give Union a 67-64 lead with under a minute to go.
 
McNoble sank two freebies after an Engineer miss to cement the lead with less than 30 seconds remaining, and then added three more free throws in the final 14 seconds to counteract a pair of RPI buckets and give the Dutchmen the win.
 
RPI (10-6, 5-4 Liberty League) led for almost the entire first half of play, but a late 11-2 run gave Union its first lead of the game at 34-33 after a McNoble three with 2:56 remaining. Five straight points put the Engineers back on top, but the Dutchmen got within one at the break thanks to a three by freshman Mike Manley.
 
After tying the game twice early in the second half, the visitors finally broke through with a 17-5 run over the span of nearly seven minutes, highlighted by three trifectas from Mannix and finished off by a free throw by sophomore Temi George that gave Union its biggest lead of the game at 62-52 with 5:12 on the clock, a lead the Dutchmen would never give up the rest of the way.
 
Union will return to the court on Friday, when the Dutchmen continue their five-game road swing at Skidmore College. Opening tip is set for 7 p.m. in Saratoga Springs.