THE MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM WON a hard-fought home game against the Middlebury Panthers with a final score of 68-66.Underway competitively since November 15, when they won the first game of the season at an away game against the State University of New York at Cobleskill 75-46, the 2015 Rensselaer men’s basketball team has already dribbled their way to a winning majority, having outdone their competition in three of the four games they have played so far.
Freshman Andreas Kontopidis was the all-star of the game on November 20, scoring 24 of RPI’s 81 points. Opponent Utica College, which scored only 48 points in the game, was the first of two opponents the Engineer’s would face over the weekend at the Hilbert Hawks Tip-Off Tourney, the second being the Hilbert Hawks themselves.
On November 21, when Rensselaer met the Hawks on the court, they suffered their first defeat in what was a very close game. Maintaining their undefeated streak, the Hawks won 88-71, despite trailing RPI for over half the game. This was because Jerame Owens and San Weisansal came to the rescue of the Hawks in their time of need, and were able to turn the game in their favor by 16:08 of the second half. This began a seven-minute long battle between the Engineers and the Hawks as they weaved in and out of the lead, but Hilbert ultimately came out ahead.
The team played again last Tuesday against the Sage Gators in Albany, N.Y. where they narrowly won their third game 71–67. The Engineers manufactured a slight lead from half time on, reaching a tie only once, at 50–50 with 8:23 remaining in the second half.
Last night at 7 pm at East Campus Arena, the RPI men hosted their first home game. In attendance were the Middlebury College Panthers.
On December 12, the team will enter the two-day-long Tri-State Shootout Tournament, beginning with a 2 pm game against Vermont Technical College.