SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's basketball team will begin postseason play on the home court for the first time since 2020 as the fourth-seeded Garnet Chargers host fifth-seeded Hobart College for the first round of the Liberty League Tournament on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Viniar Athletic Center.
Union enters the postseason with a 15-10 (11-7 Liberty League) record and finished in sole possession of fourth place in the conference standings, one game ahead of fifth-place Hobart (15-9, 10-8 Liberty League) to earn the right to host. Third-seeded Vassar College hosts sixth-seeded St. Lawrence University in the other first round game, while top-seeded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and second-seeded Ithaca College received byes into the semifinal round.
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its second straight appearance in the Liberty League Tournament and the 16th in program history. Union has captured four conference tournament titles (2002, 2005, 2017, 2018) and is 11-11 all-time in the conference postseason, including six appearances in the title game.
ALL-TIME VS. HOBART: Union and Hobart will meet for the 123rd time on Tuesday, the third-most matchups for any Union basketball opponent behind only Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Hamilton College. Union is 67-55 all-time against the Statesmen and owns a 3-1 record in postseason matchups, including the 2017 Liberty League Championship game won by Union in the only of the four games played in Schenectady. Hobart has had the better of the matchup since 2019, winning nine of the last 12 meetings.
MEETINGS THIS YEAR: Union and Hobart have to go all the way back to Saturday for their last meeting, when Union grinded out a 76-69 win to earn the fourth seed behind 18 points from sophomore
Jack Plesser and a 14-point, 15-rebound double-double for classmate
Brendan Reid. In addition to playing in the last conference game of the year, Union and Hobart also started the conference schedule back in December in Geneva, with the home team emerging with a 65-55 win in Union's second-lowest scoring game of the season.
LEADERS AT THE LINE: Union is the top-shooting team in Division III from the free-throw line this season, hitting at an 80.8 percent clip (311 of 385), and has made 28 more free throws than the opposition despite getting to the line 34 fewer times. The team has shot 80 percent or better from the charity stripe in 15-of-25 games and has shot under 70 percent in only three contests. Individually, sophomore
Jack Plesser ranks 90th in Division III by shooting 83.3 percent (75 of 90), while classmates
Jaden Jauregui (88.1 percent) and
Tanner Tedesco (86.0 percent) also excel at the line in slightly smaller sample sizes that don't reach the NCAA minimums.
THE SHOOTER'S TOUCH: In addition to their proficiency at the line, Union also ranks second in the Liberty League by shooting 43.9 percent from the field and 35.6 percent from beyond the arc this season. Union is 7-3 when shooting better than 44 percent on the year, with two of those losses coming in overtime, and are a perfect 11-0 when hitting at 37 percent or better from long range. Conversely, the team is 9-1 when holding the opposition under 41 percent shooting from the field as well.
LENDING AN ASSIST: Sophomore
Tanner Tedesco has been at or near the top of Division III in assists all season long, and enters the postseason third in the country in assists per game (6.6) and fourth in total assists (164). He has dished out at least seven assists in 13-of-25 games, including 15 against SUNY Cobleskill that is tied for the most by a D-III player this season. He is currently tied for third on Union's single-season assists list and already has the most by a Union player since Steve Evans '94 dished out a program-record 192 in 1993-94. His 291 career assists are the most by a Union player ever in the first two seasons, far surpassing the previous standard of 241 set by current head coach
Chris Murphy '06.
THREE-POINT THREAT: Sophomore
Matthew Garside has been Union's long-distance leader this season, leading the Liberty League and ranking 34th in Division III by shooting 40.4 percent (65 for 161) from beyond the arc this season. He has at least two treys in 20-of-25 games this year, including a season-high six in wins over St. Lawrence and Vassar. Coincidentally, both of those games saw his sixth shot beat the buzzer for the win: he dribbled the length of the court to
sink St. Lawrence on January 17 and banked a shot home from near half court to
vanquish Vassar on February 8.
ABOUT THE STATESMEN: Hobart enters the postseason 32nd in Division III in scoring defense, allowing 65.1 points per game to rank third in the Liberty League. Aidan Rodgers and Monty Nedd rank seventh and eighth in the conference in steals with 42 and 41, respectively, while Dorian Paki leads the squad with 27 blocks. Alex Moesch leads the team offensively by averaging 12.1 points per game, followed by Pat Healy at 10.6 ppg. If the game comes down to free throws, Union may have an edge: compared to Union's top-ranked free-throw shooting, Hobart ranks 399th out of 406 D-III teams at just 61.2 percent from the stripe this year.
WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Tuesday's game will advance to the Liberty League Tournament semifinals on Friday, where they will head to Troy to take on top-seeded Rensselaer.
2025 Liberty League Men's Basketball Tournament
Tuesday, February 25, 2025 – First Round
#6 St. Lawrence University at #3 Vassar College, 6:00 p.m.
#5 Hobart College at #4 Union College, 7:00 p.m.
Friday, February 28, 2025 – Semifinals
Vassar/St. Lawrence at #2 Ithaca College
Union/Hobart at #1 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Sunday, March 2, 2025 – Championship
Semifinal Winners
