SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's basketball team shot 62 percent from the field to outscore Skidmore College by 24 points in the second half on the way to a 80-57 Liberty League victory on Saturday afternoon at Viniar Athletic Center.
 
Sophomore Jack Plesser led all scorers with 17 points, followed by classmate Brendan Reid with a career-high 14 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists. Fellow sophomore Tanner Tedesco filled up the stat sheet with 13 points, nine assists and six rebounds, while junior Christian Dufort just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine boards for Union (6-7, 2-4 Liberty League).
 
Aidan Roy led Skidmore (4-8, 0-5 Liberty League) with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Alexei Downie added eight points, a team-high 10 rebounds and three blocks for the Thoroughbreds.
 
The Union offense connected on six of its first seven shots to jump out to a 15-9 lead less than four minutes into the game. The home team led by as many as nine points after a driving layup by first-year Will Yakoobian put the Garnet Chargers up 26-17 with 10:27 to go in the first half. However, the offense dried up over the next 10 minutes, with Union missing 13 of its next 14 shots to allow the Thoroughbreds to go on a 17-4 run and eventually take a 34-33 lead into the half.
 
Skidmore outscored Union 12-7 over the first four minutes of the second stanza to match its largest lead of the day at 46-40. But the tide turned dramatically after that, as Union caught fire from the field and sunk 15 of its last 22 field-goal attempts (68.1 percent) to outscore Skidmore by 29 points the rest of the way. The run was started by a stretch of 14 straight Union points, capped by a Reid triple to put Union up 54-46 with 12:06 left. The lead never fell below 10 after the last of two straight baskets by Tedesco with 5:29 remaining, and the Garnet Chargers closed on a 14-2 run over the final 3:52 to balloon the advantage to 23 points at the final buzzer, with junior Sam O'Toole providing the final points of the day via a three-pointer.
 
Thanks to the team's 18-of-29 effort in the second half, Union finished the game shooting 47.5 percent (29 of 61) from the field, including 50.0 percent (10 of 20) from long range and 80.0 percent (12 of 15) from the free-throw line. Skidmore shot just 30.3 percent (20 of 66) and hit only 6-of-28 shots (21.4 percent) from long range.
 
Union will look to keep the momentum going next weekend, beginning with a Friday night matchup against St. Lawrence University beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Viniar Athletic Center.