SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's basketball team once again hung tough until the final minute, but the results once again did not come as the Dutchmen fell to first-place Ithaca College by an 80-71 score in a Liberty League matchup on Saturday afternoon at Viniar Athletic Center.
 
Senior Brian Noone led four players in double figures for Union (2-15, 1-9 Liberty League) with 18 points, helped by a 4-of-6 effort from beyond the arc. Classmate Mike Manley added 16 points, junior Edward Baptiste chipped in 12 points and a team-leading seven rebounds, and first-year Aren Cummings netted 10 points.
 
Ithaca (11-5, 7-2 Liberty League) was led by Luka Radovich, who paced all players with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Skylar Simon, who finished with 19 points in 21 minutes.
 
Both teams shot the ball well on the night, with Ithaca finishing the game at 48.3 percent (29 of 60) from the field and Union ending up at 47.3 percent (26 of 55). The home team shot a better percentage (47.3 percent) from three-point land, but the visitors made up for it in volume (10-7) to account for the nine-point difference.
 
Union once again got off to a good start on Saturday, doubling up the Bombers by a 16-8 margin over the first 6:46 of the contest, led by six points from Noone. The home team still led by eight with 11:15 remaining in the half before a 10-0 run put the visitors up 20-18 with 8:04 left. The teams continued to trade the lead back and forth until Union scored eight of the last 13 points to take a 32-30 lead into intermission.
 
The deficit did not grow beyond two possessions for most of the second stanza, with Union staying right with the first-place Bombers. Union took its last lead of the game with 9:25 left, when Manley finished off a three-point play to complete a brief 8-2 run that made the score 54-53. However, George Sikoryak III came back with his own three-point play on the next possession to push Ithaca back ahead. It was still a three-point game after a Manley three with 2:36 on the clock, but Ithaca got buckets on each of its next three possessions to take a 74-66 lead with a minute remaining and Sinon went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line down the stretch to secure the win.
 
Union has one more weekend left in its seven-game homestand, which will kick off on Friday with a 7:30 p.m. tipoff against Capital Region rival Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.