SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's basketball team shot just 28.6 percent in the second half and struggled with turnovers all afternoon long as the Garnet Chargers dropped a 56-50 matchup to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday afternoon at Viniar Athletic Center.
The loss drops Union (15-4, 10-2 Liberty League) into a first-place tie with Rensselaer (14-5, 10-2 Liberty League) atop the Liberty League standings with six games remaining, with both teams having won on the opponent's home court.
Junior
Tanner Tedesco scored a game-high 18 points for the Garnet Chargers, followed by classmates
Matthew Garside and
Jack Plesser with 14 and 11 points, respectively. However, the trio shot just 37.2 percent (16 of 43) from the field, as the team as a whole struggled to score for large periods of the afternoon.
Tedesco came out firing to start the day, hitting six of his first eight shots on the way to 15 points as the Garnet Chargers took a 22-19 lead with 6:16 left in the opening half. As a team, Union shot 8-for-17 over the first 14 minutes and led for a majority of the frame, but headed into halftime tied at 28 after RPI scored the final five points of the half.
Both teams shot 42 percent over the first 20 minutes, with Union working well from long range and Rensselaer having the better results in the paint.
RPI started the second half with seven straight points, but a pair of Garside threes got the home team back within a possession before a debilitating stretch of nearly eight minutes in which Union went without a point. While RPI managed only two baskets in the same time frame to limit the damage, Union missed six straight shots and turned the ball over five times in failing to take advantage of RPI's similarly slow stretch.
Garside ended the scoreless run with a three with 8:56 remaining that started a 10-2 run to put Union back up at 44-43 with 4:17 on the clock, but Union managed only two field goals the rest of the way. Tedesco hit a three with 1:49 left to get Union back within a point, and still trailed only by two with the ball after a great defensive stand forced a shot-clock violation with 39 ticks left. However, a game-tying shot rimmed out in the final 20 seconds and RPI hit four free throws to finish off the victory.
Union had its worst shooting game of the season on Saturday, hitting on just 34.6 percent (18 of 52) of its shots from the field, while the team's 17 turnovers were its third-most of the year. Rensselaer shot 42.0 percent (21 of 50) from the field and 10-of-11 from the line to secure the win.
The Garnet Chargers will return to the court on Friday, when the team kicks off the final home weekend of the regular season against Skidmore College beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Viniar Athletic Center.
