The men’s basketball team got run out of the North Country this weekend as St. Lawrence beat Rensselaer soundly on Saturday and Clarkson completely shut down the Red Hawks on Sunday.
The Saints moved the ball around much better than the Red Hawks—St. Lawrence outpaced RPI in assists 21-10. The resulting larger number of shots and shooting percentage, especially from three-point range, allowed the Saints to build up a 12-point halftime lead. RPI’s shooting picked up in the second half, but St. Lawrence maintained their 50 percent shooting pace to coast to a 78-63 win.
Dean Pierce led the Red Hawks with 16 points and five rebounds, and freshman Paris Moore added another 11 points and five rebounds.
Sunday’s game went even more poorly for the Red Hawks, as the Golden Knights completely shut down Rensselaer’s bottom-ranked offense. RPI just barely cleared 30 percent shooting over the entire game and went 0-9 from downtown—the Red Hawks are last in the UCAA in threes per game. On the defensive end, RPI did well to hold a strong Clarkson offense to just 35 percent from the floor and 58 points, but without any scoring to speak of the Red Hawks were sent home from Potsdam with their tails between their legs, 58-37.
No RPI player had even a single-double in the game; Moore led the team with nine points and seven rebounds.
The losses drop RPI’s conference record to 5-4, tying them with St. Lawrence for fourth place in the UCAA. They will host Hamilton and Hobart this weekend.
