SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's basketball team led by as many as 19 points early in the second half and never trailed, but the Garnet Chargers needed to hold firm down the stretch to hold off St. Lawrence University and start Liberty League play with a 72-68 win on Friday night at Viniar Athletic Center.
 
Junior Jack Plesser paced Union (5-2, 1-0 Liberty League) with 20 points and eight rebounds, while classmate Matthew Garside hit 5-of-8 shots from long range on the way to a 19-point night. Fellow junior Tanner Tedesco chipped in 13 points and eight assists, and senior Christian Dufort filled up the stat sheet with seven points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
 
The home team hit three of its first four shots to take an early 7-0 lead before St. Lawrence (3-5, 1-1 Liberty League) settled down to knot the score with seven in a row of its own. Tied at nine with 4:13 gone by, Union rattled off a 19-6 run over the next nine minutes to take a 28-15 advantage, guided by eight points from Garside. The lead grew to as many as 15 after a late Garside triple and the Garnet Chargers went into the break up 14 after a last-second bucket from Dufort made the score 43-29. Union shot 60.9 percent (14 of 23) from the field and an even-better 63.6 percent (7 of 11) from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes to seemingly take control.
 
The lead was bumped up to as many as 19 after a steal and score by sophomore Harrison Collins just before the under-16 media timeout, and the home team still led comfortably after a Tedesco floater put the Garnet Chargers up 60-43 with 13:03 remaining. However, the Saints responded with a 16-2 run to get within a basket with 6:29 on the clock, as Union missed 10-of-11 shots and all six long-range attempts.
 
First-year Pat Cullinan hit a clutch basket soon after to stem the tide and Plesser followed with two layups to spark a mini run that put Union up 68-60 with 3:47 left to go. Two Garside free throws somewhat counteracted four straight missed shots for the team, but the visitors eventually whittled the lead down to just two at 70-68 after an Aidan Phelan bucket with 17 seconds left. However, a heads-up play by Dufort on the ensuing inbound sprung Plesser for an uncontested dunk that built the lead back to four, and a missed three-pointer on the next possession helped seal the win.
 
Union still finished the game shooting 48.1 percent (26 of 54) from the field and 40.0 percent (8 of 20) from long range, as the strong first half helped to counteract 12-of-31 shooting overall and a 1-of-9 mark on three-pointers over the final 20 minutes. The Union defense limited St. Lawrence to 37.5 percent (24 of 64) shooting overall on the night.
 
Union will look to finish off a perfect conference weekend tomorrow with a 4 p.m. matchup against Clarkson University at Viniar Athletic Center.