SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's basketball team jumped out to a big first-half lead and held on down the stretch, getting one last defensive stand in the final seconds to pull out a much-needed 63-62 victory over Bard College in a Liberty League battle on Tuesday night at Viniar Athletic Center.
 
Sophomore Tanner Tedesco paced Union (5-6, 1-3 Liberty League) with a team-best 14 points to go with six rebounds and four assists. Junior Christian Dufort came off the bench to deliver 13 points with six caroms, while sophomore Matthew Garside chipped in 11 points and classmate Jack Plesser added 10 points and seven boards.
 
Lazaros Panagiotounis led all scorers with 23 points for Bard (7-4, 2-2 Liberty League), but his last-second attempt did not fall to clinch the win for the Garnet Chargers.
 
Tedesco opened the scoring with a three on the game's opening possession and the Garnet Chargers never trailed in a well-played first half. Starting with Tedesco's triple, Union scored 12 of the first 14 points to take the early advantage. After the Raptors hung around for the next five minutes, Union put together another 12-2 run to take a 32-17 lead with 4:58 remaining in the opening half. A traditional three-point play followed by a long-range trey from Dufort opened up the largest lead of the night at 38-22, and the home team went into the half up 40-26 after a bucket from sophomore Brendan Reid in the final minute.
 
After maintaining some distance to start the second half, Bard limited Union to just four points during a seven-minute span in which the Raptors outscored the Garnet Chargers by a 15-4 margin to make it a one-possession game at 51-49 with 6:42 remaining. After a Plesser jumper temporarily halted the run, a Jalen Umstead jumper and a Panagiotounis three gave the visitors their first lead of the night at 54-53 with 5:36 to go.
 
The teams traded buckets on the next three possessions, with big baskets from Dufort and Garside helping to keep Union ahead by a point entering the final four minutes. Plesser had a clutch offensive rebound that resulted in a pair of free throws to put Union up 59-56, and Tedesco sunk a pair of key buckets that made it a 63-59 game entering the final minute. A Sean Wilcox three brought Bard within a point and a missed Union shot set up the Raptors with a chance to win the game, but the Garnet Chargers played excellent defense on Panagiotounis out of a timeout and forced an off-balance three at the buzzer that did not fall.
 
After a good shooting first half, Union struggled to find the basket in the second half and finished the game at 40.3 percent (25 of 62) from the field. The Garnet Chargers missed all 12 three-pointers in the second half and the nation's top free-throw shooting team also shot just 60.0 percent (6 of 10) from the line on the night. Bard finished the game shooting 45.6 percent (26 of 57) from the floor.
 
Union will continue Liberty League action on Friday with a 7:30 p.m. matchup against Ithaca College at Viniar Athletic Center.