This was the first time the Red Hawks went undefeated over a weekend since the team’s conference openers back in mid-January, and it could not have come at a more imperative moment for RPI.

After losing to last place Vassar 50-46 last Tuesday, RPI was knocked out of the running for first place in the UCAA and now needed a sweep to simply guarantee themselves a spot in the conference tournament this weekend.

Early in Friday’s contest, things looked hopeless early for the Red Hawks as Rensselaer fell behind big to a deadly Skidmore team. The Thoroughbreds hit over 50 percent of their shots and went 6-14 from beyond the arc as Skidmore built a substantial 36-18 lead.

However, in the second half, the Red Hawks gave Skidmore a taste of their own medicine as Rensselaer hit nine three- pointers and shot just over 40 percent from the field goal.

Tom Schneider, who had a game high 23 points and 16 rebounds, hit the game’s most important three with two seconds left in regulation to send the game into its first overtime session.

John Von Schaick hit six three-pointers en route to an 18 point performance and Paul Halas hit four treys in a season high 17 point showing.

“Tom had a great night and we really needed him to step up,” Rensselaer Head Coach Mike Griffin said. “Halas gave us a big lift last night, and Van Schaick came through when we needed him.”

The first overtime saw more clutch shooting this time by Skidmore’s Michael Murray. Murray hit a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer to send the tight battle to a second overtime.

Finally, in the second extra session Rensselaer took control of the game. RPI went on an 8-0 tear to start the period and for all intents and purposes put the game out of reach for the exhausted Thoroughbreds.

With one brutal comeback behind them, a fatigued Red Hawks team came into a season deciding match-up with hated rival Union.

Unfortunately, Rensselaer again fell behind in the first half due mainly to Union’s ability to get seven offensive rebounds and hit just over 52 percent from downtown.

“They [Union] came out on fire,” Griffin said. “You’ve got to rebound the ball. They really hurt us on the boards, got some confidence shooting the ball, and when a team gets three possessions they start to get confident.”

Rensselaer, with a 56 percent field goal percentage, actually shot better overall in the first half, but the 10 three pointers by the Dutchmen proved to be the difference maker, and the Red Hawks went into the locker room behind for the second striaght game, this time facing an 11-point margin.

“We wanted to be within 10 at half,” Griffin said. “So then we could just say okay, lets go out and chop away at this lead.”

And that is precisely what the Red Hawks did.

Over the entire second half, Rensselaer slowly and patiently hacked away at the Union lead, and after a Paris Moore three point play, RPI trailed 56-55 with 7:05 left in the ball game.

“We kept battling and kept going after them,” Griffin said. “And then we were finally able to do what we wanted to do all game, put Jared [Hite] on [John] Cagianello defensively, and feed the ball inside to Jared.”

Hite scored a team-high 22 points and six rebounds in his last home game as a Red Hawk.

“Jared can do anything out there,” Griffin said. “He can play the whole game. He really made Cagianello work for his shots.”

In the second half RPI came out of the 3-2 zone and went to a man-to-man defense which put a lot of pressure on the Union shooters. The Dutchmen shot a mediocre 32 percent in the second half and just 40 percent for the game. Rensselaer on the other hand, continued to shoot a remarkable 56.3 percent the entire game.

“We were able to play the man and shut down their shooters in the second half,” Griffin said. “As long as we go inside we get pretty good looks, and we feed off of Van Schaick making shots for us.”

Rensselaer took its first lead since the first minute of the game on a Moore lay-up with 3:45 left.

The Red Hawks then exploded on a 7-0 run over the next minute and half to take the 64-58 lead capped by a Van Schaick NBA-range three-pointer with the shot clock running out. Rensselaer went on to hit their free-throws down the stretch to secure the win and keep their season alive.

Matt Zepernick was solid for Rensselaer all game helping to pace the Red Hawks with 14 points. Van Schaick and Moore tallied most of their 13 and 11 points in the crucial moments with the game on the line late in the second half.

“We need Zep and Tom to play well,” Griffin said. “When our four spot player is playing well, it takes a lot of pressure off Hite.”

Union’s Cagianello hit six three’s in the game for the Dutchmen en route to his game high 25 points. Teammates T. J. Ramey added 19 points and Chris Murphy contributed 10 for the Dutchmen.

With two spectacular comebacks in one weekend, Griffin is just glad his heart is still okay, and feels as though the Vassar loss may have been a bit of a wake up call for his team.

“I don’t think we would have played with the same desperation we showed in the Skidmore game, had we only needed a split to get in.” Griffin said. “We knew we had to give every ounce of everything we had to sweep and get in.”

Rensselaer must now prepare to face a red hot St. Lawrence team in next weekend’s UCAA tournament first round match-up. The Saints have won six straight to rally from a poor 3-5 conference start. St. Lawrence’s last defeat actually came on February 6 against the Red Hawks at Robison Gymnasium.

“We match up well with St. Lawrence and our 3-2 zone has kept Aaron Marshall from blowing up,” Griffin said. “I refuse to listen to those who will say that you cannot beat a team three times in a season. I would much rather play a team that we have beaten twice than a team that has beaten us twice.”

The Red Hawks will play the Saints at Hamilton on Friday night. The time of the contest has still not been announced by the conference.

Hamilton won the honor of hosting the tournament by winning the UCAA regular season title with a 9-5 record. Rensselaer, Clarkson, and St. Lawrence all finished with 9-5 marks, but after going through several tie-breakers the Continentals emerged on top of the division.

The tight race at the top of the UCAA gained national attention.

The Red Hawks would have won the conference and be hosting the postseason tournament had they not blown a huge game to UCAA basement dweller, Vassar last Tuesday.