SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – A fourth straight home game resulted in a fourth straight win for the surging Union College men's basketball team on Saturday afternoon, as the Garnet Chargers jumped out to an early lead and held off Ithaca College in the second half to earn an 87-81 win at Viniar Athletic Center.
It was another group effort for Union (11-7, 6-6 Liberty League), which saw five players reach double figures on the way to moving into a fourth-place tie in the conference standings. First-year
Tanner Tedesco led the team with 19 points, six assists and five rebounds, and he was followed closely by senior
Luke McGarrity with 17 points. Sophomore
Christian Dufort chipped in 15 points against his former team and added five rebounds, as did first-year
Jack Plesser to go with 10 points and two blocks. Senior
Connor Cepiel also scored 11 points and grabbed a team-leading six rebounds.
Ithaca (10-8, 5-6 Liberty League) was led by Logan Wendell, who led all players with a game-high 27 points and added seven rebounds. Triston Wennersten netted 18 points with a game-high nine rebounds as well for the Bombers.
Union led almost all game long on Saturday, with Ithaca grabbing its only lead of the day at 3-2 after a Wennersten three-point play. Cepiel responded with a layup on the next possession and the Garnet Chargers never trailed the rest of the way, even though Ithaca made a run in the second half.
Cepiel's layup started a 7-0 run that put the home team up 9-3 4:00 into the game. After the Bombers got back within one at 13-12, Union ran off 10 straight points to take a 23-12 lead with 9:18 left, with Dufort sinking a pair of threes and adding an assist during the run. The home team retained its 11-point lead at the end of the first half thanks to 41.9 percent (13 of 31) shooting in the opening frame.
Both teams shot over 50.0 percent from the field in a fast-paced second stanza, but Union's 63.0 percent (17 of 27) shooting from the field and 10-of-12 effort from the line was enough to push the team to the win. The Garnet Chargers started the second half with seven straight points to take a 44-26 lead, matching the team's largest lead of the game. Union still led by 18 (52-34) with 17:03 remaining but Ithaca slowly chipped away at the deficit and eventually used a 10-0 run to get back within a bucket at 60-58 with 9:34 left.
Union had an answer, however, in the form of a 12-2 run that was capped by a layup from first-year
Brendan Reid to put Union up 72-60 with 6:39 on the clock. The Bombers again chipped away to get within a possession at 74-71, but Dufort went on a personal 5-0 run to bump the lead back up to eight (79-71) with 2:46 remaining. Union then closed out the game from the charity stripe, going 6-for-6 to seal the victory.
The Garnet Chargers finished the game shooting 51.7 percent (30 of 58) from the field, including a 10-of-25 effort from long range, and also shot 89.5 percent (17 of 19) from the line. Union has shot 87.5 percent (70 of 80) from the line during the team's four-game winning streak compared to 71.1 percent during the season's first 14 games.
Union will be back in action on Friday when the team makes the short trip across the river to take on Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute beginning at 7:30 p.m.
