SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Down by 24 points late in the first half, the Union College men's basketball team shot 62.5 percent in the second half to outscore Ithaca College by 29 points in the final 20 minutes and storm back for a huge 86-79 victory in Liberty League action on Friday night at Viniar Athletic Center.
 
The win moves Union (15-3, 10-1 Liberty League) into sole possession of first place in the conference standings heading into tomorrow's showdown with second-place Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and completes the first season sweep of Ithaca (6-12, 5-6 Liberty League) since the Bombers joined the conference in 2017-18.
 
Junior Jack Plesser scored a team-leading 26 points while grabbing nine rebounds and blocking three shots for the Garnet Chargers, followed by classmate Tanner Tedesco with 19 points and five assists and fellow junior Matthew Garside with 17 points. Senior Christian Dufort had nine points and five assists to go with a game-high 12 rebounds, while sophomore Will Yakoobian (seven points) and first-year Cade Furse (five points, two steals) made key second-half contributions off the bench as well.
 
Friday's game was all about the second half, which saw Union hit 20-of-32 shots from the field and sink 9-of-14 attempts (64.3 percent) from long range to mount an incredible comeback. Down 51-29 at the break, Union started the second half on a 19-4 run to get back with single digits at 55-48 on a Tedesco jumper. Plesser and Dufort had five points each as part of a balanced scoring effort, which saw Union shoot 8-of-12 from the field and more importantly hold Ithaca to 1-of-10 shooting with five turnovers.
 
The Garnet Chargers got back within a possession for the first time since the opening minutes thanks to five straight points by Yakoobian that made the score 66-63, and the home team completed the comeback with a Plesser layup that put the squad up 69-68 with 6:16 on the clock. The Bombers took their last lead with 5:12 left on an Evan Cabral three-point play, but a Garside three kickstarted a 9-2 stretch that put Union up 80-74 with 2:30 on the clock and Union sealed the game with a 6-for-6 effort from the free-throw line.
 
Union jumped out to an early 7-4 lead after back-to-back dunks by Dufort and Plesser, but Ithaca (6-12, 5-6 Liberty League) outscored Union by a 31-10 margin over the span of nine minutes to build up a big lead. The Bombers shot 52.9 percent (18 of 34) from the field in the first half and limited Union to just 38.2 percent (13 of 34) shooting.
 
Thanks to its red-hot second half, Union ended the night at an even 50.0 percent (33 of 66) from the field, helped by a huge 45.8 percent success rate (11 of 24) from long range and 27 points scored off 19 Ithaca turnovers. After a hot start, Ithaca cooled down in the second half to finish the game at 46.7 percent (28 of 60) from the field.
 
Union will look to get off to a better start and finish the weekend strong with a huge battle against RPI tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Viniar Athletic Center.