SCHENECTADY, N.Y. - The Union College men's basketball team overcame a slow start to outscore Hobart College by 10 points in the second half and earn its first season sweep of the Statesmen since 2017-18 with a hard-fought 75-68 victory on Senior Day at Viniar Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon.
The victory improves Union to 17-4 overall and 12-2 in Liberty League play, tying three previous teams (2012-13, 2017-18 and 2019-20) for the most conference wins in a season in program history. With four conference games remaining, Union remains tied atop the Liberty League with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, one game clear of Vassar College in third place.
With all five seniors starting, junior
Tanner Tedesco came off the bench for just the second time in his career but still led the team with 21 points. Senior
Christian Dufort hit 7-of-11 shots from the field and 4-of-7 from long range to score 19 points and junior
Matthew Garside added 11 points for the home team. With junior
Jack Plesser (six points) in foul trouble for much of the game, sophomore
Will Yakoobian played a career-high 27 minutes and chipped in six points and a game- and career-high 10 rebounds as well as part of a strong bench unit.
The Garnet Chargers started out slow on Saturday, spotting Hobart a 17-6 lead 7:03 into the contest. Dufort had six points as part of a 13-0 run that temporarily gave Union back the lead at 25-21, but Hobart finished the frame with a 13-6 stretch to take a 34-31 lead into halftime. Hobart shot 40.0 percent (12 of 30) and Union finished the first half at 39.3 percent (11 of 28) from the field in the opening 20 minutes.
The Statesmen kept the Garnet Chargers at bay for the first six minutes of the second half, taking a 50-42 lead with 14:02 left after a Monty Nedd jumper. But a Yakoobian three-pointer kick started a game-changing 19-3 run that put the home team up 61-53 after a three by first-year
Cade Furse with 7:40 on the clock. Seven different players scored during the run, which saw Union saw Union hit 6-of-8 shots from the field and hold Hobart to 1-of-10 shooting.
The visitors got back within four points after back-to-back baskets, but Tedesco hit a huge three with 6:09 remaining to bump the lead back up to seven and a Dufort jumper followed by two Garside freebies made it an eight-point game with under five minutes remaining. A big three-point play by Furse helped to protect the lead and Union sealed the win from the charity stripe in the final minute.
Both teams finished the day shooting 41 percent from the field, but Union differentiated itself with a 10-of-27 effort (37.0 percent) from beyond the arc while Hobart shot just 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from long range and did most of its scoring (42 points) in the paint.
Union will play its final four games of the regular season on the road, starting with a matchup at Vassar College on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
