TROY, N.Y. – The Union College men's basketball team went cold after a good start as the Dutchmen dropped a 63-46 decision to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in a Liberty League matchup on Friday night at the East Campus Arena.
 
Senior Mike Manley led Union (7-8, 4-5 Liberty League) with 17 points, with 12 coming during an early hot stretch. Classmate Temi George added seven points and a team-best nine rebounds for the visitors. Jonny Angbazo led RPI (14-2, 8-1 Liberty League), which is receiving votes in the latest D3hoops.com national poll, with a game-high 18 points and 11 rebounds.
 
Manley carried the Dutchmen for the first quarter of the contest, hitting 4-of-7 shots and scoring 12 of the team's first 16 points as Union jumped out to a 16-11 lead. Junior Mike Caporale chipped in the other four points for the Dutchmen, who limited RPI to 4-of-13 shooting to start out.
 
Union still led 18-13 after a layup from George with 8:06 left before RPI rattled off 14 straight points to take a 27-18 lead into the locker rooms. The Dutchmen missed all nine shots and turned the ball over five times during the run, which spanned the final 6:19 of the half.
 
After starting strongly, Union finished the first half shooting just 22.6 percent (7 of 31) from the field), as the team managed just two points over the final 10-plus minutes of the period. RPI went into the break shooting 34.6 percent (9 of 26), but hit 7-of-9 free throws.
 
Junior Sean Regis finally ended the Union scoring drought of nearly 11 minutes with a layup early in the second half, ending RPI's 17-0 run and making the score 31-20. The teams traded baskets for the next few minutes before another 15-2 run for the Engineers pushed the lead to 24 at 50-26 with 8:18 to go. The RPI advantage grew to as many as 26 points before Union closed on a 12-2 run.
 
The Dutchmen finished the evening shooting 27.0 percent (17 of 63) from the field, while the Engineers ended up at 39.2 percent (20 of 51) from the floor with 18 more trips to the free-throw line (19 of 24).
 
Union will return to action tomorrow with a 4 p.m. tipoff at Skidmore College.