TROY, N.Y. – The fourth-seeded Union College men's basketball team picked a bad time for one of its worst three-point shooting nights of the season, as the Garnet Chargers could not hit the key shot down the stretch to suffer a 72-64 defeat at the hands of top-seeded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Liberty League Tournament semifinals on Friday night at ECAV Arena.
 
Rensselaer (21-5) advances to Sunday's Liberty League championship game, where the Engineers will host second-seeded Ithaca College. Union (16-11) has its season come to a close with the defeat.
 
Sophomore Tanner Tedesco scored a team-leading 18 points to go with six assists and five rebounds for Union, finishing the season with 175 assists to rank third on the school single-season list. Classmates Matthew Garside and Jack Plesser chipped in 15 and 14 points, respectively, while fellow sophomore Brendan Reid grabbed a team-best seven rebounds.
 
Avery Eugster led all players with 21 points and eight rebounds to pace the Engineers, followed by Andrew Deppe with 18 points and Dylan Matchett with 13 points.
 
Despite finishing the game with the higher shooting percentage at 43.4 percent (23 of 53), Union was uncharacteristically off from long range, hitting only 3-of-18 (16.7 percent) from beyond the arc. RPI shot 41.8 percent (23 of 55) from the field and hit 9-of-28 (32.1 percent) from distance to provide the winning margin.
 
Union struggled to find the basket at the start of the game, missing 14 of its first 18 shots from the field. Despite that, the Garnet Chargers were able to stay in the game thanks to solid defense and a 10-of-12 effort from the line. Down 24-18 after a pair of Reid free throws with 6:07 left, the visitors hit five straight shots as part of an 11-2 run that put Union up 29-26 with 86 seconds left in the half and the Garnet Chargers eventually took a 29-28 advantage into the break.
 
Both teams shot better from the field in the second half, but RPI used a big advantage at the line and timely three-point shooting to keep Union out of reach down the stretch. Union took its last lead of the game at 46-45 after a Tedesco driving layup at the midway point of the half, but a quick 8-0 run put the Engineers back up 53-46 with 8:32 on the clock.
 
The Garnet Chargers got back within a possession on several occasions and trailed only by three after a Tedesco pull-up jumper put the score at 56-53 with 5:40 remaining. However, the team went nearly four minutes without a field goal after that, allowing RPI to build its lead back up to eight (63-55) with under two minutes left. After the teams traded baskets, the Engineers sealed the game with a 7-of-8 effort from the free-throw line.
 
Union shot its customary best from the line, hitting 15-of-17 attempts (88.2 percent), but RPI nearly matched the visitors by hitting 17-of-20 (85.0 percent) on the night, including a 15-of-16 mark in the second half.
 
The loss ends a promising season for the Garnet Chargers, who tied the most wins in a season since 2017-18 and did so with a lineup that featured no seniors and regularly started four sophomores.  The team is slated to return in full force next year as the Garnet Chargers look to make a run at the Liberty League title.