This weekend’s split knocked the Red Hawks out of a tie for first place with Clarkson in the UCAA and into second after the Red Hawks went .500 on the road for the second straight weekend.

Both games saw Rensselaer trying to battle back from halftime deficits due to poor shooting and solid interior defense by the Dutchman and Thoroughbreds.

In the Union game, the Dutchmen were able to grab the early lead and never looked back as the Red Hawks’ offense struggled.

Rensselaer opened the game shooting a horrendous 21.7 percent from the field including 0-6 from long range while Union exploded shooting just over 40 percent which gave them a 30-14 lead at halftime.

The second half unfortunately saw little change for the Red Hawks. Although Rensselaer did shoot better, the Dutchmen were able to match RPI shot for shot and refused to let Rensselaer make a substantial run.

The Union defense does merit some of the credit for RPI’s poor offensive showing. They harassed Jared Hite relentlessly all game with double teams, often before he even touched the ball, and shut down Paris Moore and RPI’s outside game.

“Clarkson started it, doubling Jared before he got the ball,” Assistant Coach Mike Benfer said. “They really doubled him very hard and threw different guys at him all game long. Paris struggled, but he just had a rough night. He has been big for us all year.”

Union is the top ranked team offensively and defensively in the UCAA conference play, but Rensselaer is actually number one among conference teams in those same same categories in overall games played.

“Union has a lot of talent,” said Benfer. “They are possibly the most talented team in the league.”

Matt Zepernick tallied 15 points to lead the Red Hawks and John Van Schaick added 10.

“Matt stepped up his aggressiveness in the second half,” Benfer said. “This was his best game since his 20 [points], 12 [rebounds] performance against Middlebury.”

After dropping a crucial game to rival Union, Rensselaer knew they had to get a win against Skidmore on Saturday.

“We needed the Skidmore game,” admitted Head Coach Mike Griffin. “It was crucial we at least split the weekend.”

Despite the Red Hawks focused mind set entering the contest, RPI continued to be plagued by poor shooting. Rensselaer managed to go just 8-32 from the field in the first half while Skidmore shot a respectable 39.3 percent and took a 10 point lead before heading into the locker room.

During halftime Griffin rallied his team, complimenting their defensive effort, while at the same time urging them push the ball up the court and to move the ball more in the half court sets.

“Defensively we were doing a good job,” Griffin said. “We needed to improve our timing on screens, move the ball around the perimeter, and go out and be athletes and make some plays.”

As the Red Hawks left the locker room, Griffin felt confident his team was poised for another second half run.

“We made runs at Clarkson and Union and I thought we would against Skidmore,” Griffin said. “This is a resilient group of guys. They don’t give up and they play well together, no one player tries to bring us back by himself.”

And the much needed second half comeback did indeed come.

Freshman John Montgomery hit his only shot of the game, a three pointer, with just under 10 minutes to play tying the game at 40-40 and with the game all squared, the momentum quickly shifted to the RPI.

Skidmore continued to hang close with excellent outside shooting, but the smoking Red Hawks proved to be too much, and with 1:41 left in the game Moore drained a deep three-pointer with just two seconds left on the shot clock giving the Rensselaer a 52-46 lead.

RPI made their foul shots down the stretch to seal the much needed victory in what was an emotional comeback effort.

“We improved our shooting and finally made some jump shots,” Griffin said. “We also had better timing and got some good play from Tom Schneider, who is finally playing up to our expectations.”

Schneider had 11 points in the win while Moore led the team with 14. But it was truly a team effort as almost every player that saw action contributed for Rensselaer.

However, there is little time to celebrate for the Red Hawks as Griffin is faced with the difficult challenge of trying to get Hite—who managed to score a combined 10 points in this weekend’s games—the ball more and correct RPI’s inconsistent offensive play.

“We will not win if Jared only gets as many shots as he did this weekend,” Griffin said. “We are going to try and move him around a little more to get him separation, and get him the ball at the high post. Our offense has been stagnant and we need to solve our problem with movement.”

Rensselaer (5-2) sits just behind 6-1 Clarkson in the UCAA standings and just ahead of 4-3 Union and 4-3 Hamilton.

“This will be a great race,” Griffin said. “Anybody can beat anyone, home and away and if we don’t improve, we will get left behind.”