ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Fourth-seeded Rochester Institute of Technology finished the game on a 25-9 run over the final 10 minutes to deal the fifth-seeded Union College men's basketball team a heartbreaking 74-71 defeat in the first round of the Liberty League Tournament on Tuesday evening at Clark Memorial Gymnasium.
With the win, RIT (14-12) advances to the semifinals of the Liberty League Tournament, where the Tigers will face off with top-seeded Hobart College. Union (14-12) has its promising season come to a close with the loss.
Senior
Luke McGarrity did everything he could to keep his collegiate career alive, scoring a career- and game-high 22 points thanks to 6-of-11 shooting from long range. First-year
Jack Plesser chipped in 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting and sophomore
Christian Dufort reached double figures as well with 12 points. First-year
Tanner Tedesco also dished out 10 assists to finish the season with 127, breaking the mark of
Chris Murphy '06 for the most by a first-year in school history and ranking ninth-most ever in a season by a Union player.
Union had the better shooting night, hitting 46.6 percent (27 of 58) of its shots from the field compared to 39.3 percent (24 of 61) for the Tigers. However, the home team got to the line 24 times and made 19, compared to a 9-of-10 effort for the visitors, to provide the difference.
McGarrity and Plesser carried Union offensively for most of the opening half, combining for 27 of the team's 38 points as the teams went into the half knotted up. The Garnet Chargers made the first move of the game with a 12-2 run to take a 14-7 lead less than six minutes into the game. After a McGarrity three put Union up 24-22 with 8:39 on the clock, RIT responded with a 14-5 stretch to take its largest lead of the game at 36-29 with 3:54 to go. The visitors got momentum back headed into the break, however, with a 9-2 stint to knot the score at 38 after a last-second Plesser layup.
Union continued its momentum with 11 straight points to start the second half, capped by a Tedesco jumper 2:35 into the period to put Union up 49-38. The Garnet Chargers maintained a comfortable edge for the next seven minutes, bumping the lead up to 13 on two occasions after a bucket by sophomore
Aren Cummings with 11:52 left and following a Dufort triple with 10:02 on the clock that made the score 62-49.
However, 10 straight RIT points got the home team right back in the game and set the stage for a tense final few minutes. Dufort put the visitors up 70-64 with 4:21 remaining, but Union then went over four minutes without attempting a field goal thanks to five turnovers and a 1-for-2 effort at the line. As a result, the Tigers went on 10-1 run despite going 1-for-6 from the field themselves, thanks to large part to an 8-for-8 effort from the line. Down by three in the waning seconds, Union had two looks at a game-tying three, but both shots went wayward to suffer the difficult loss.
The defeat concludes a promising season that saw four of the team's five top scoring outputs come from newcomers, including three first-years. The team is slated to return five of its top-six scorers next season as the Garnet Chargers look to keep their momentum going with another year of experience.
