The men’s basketball team dropped a pair of critical conference matches this past weekend, making any chance of a playoff appearance remote at best.
On Friday, the Red Hawks squandered a 12-point halftime lead and fell to the Hobart Statesmen, 71-65.
Hobart could get nothing going in the first half, shooting just 10-for-26 from the floor. Only the 12 fouls committed by the Red Hawks kept the Statesmen in the game, as RPI shot nearly 60 percent and quickly opened up a double-digit lead. The visitors cut the lead to seven a couple of times but could get no closer and went to the locker room down 43-31.
The game completely turned around after the break, though, as the Statesmen immediately began making a run. Serious foul trouble began taking its toll on the Red Hawks at both ends of the court, preventing the team from getting into the paint on offense and making it very difficult for them to defend effectively.
The turning point of the game came about halfway through the period, when the Statesmen had closed the gap to three points. Hobart’s Joe Corbett, the game’s leading scorer with 27 points, was fouled as he hit a bucket and came to the line with a chance to tie the game. He missed the free throw, but the Red Hawks failed to box him out. Corbett grabbed his own rebound and passed the ball out to a teammate, who was fouled while taking a three-pointer. The ensuing free throws put the Statesmen up by two, and they never lost the lead after that.
Saturday’s matchup against Hamilton featured a similar second-half breakdown for the Red Hawks, in which foul trouble again played a major role. The Thoroughbreds shot extremely well in the first half, hitting 16 of 31 shots to take a nine-point lead at the break.
RPI started off the second half well, nailing most of their shots to come back and tie the game at 58 with about 10 minutes remaining. The Red Hawk run ended there, though—the Thoroughbreds got to the free-throw line 27 times over the course of the half, and hit 21 of those shots to put RPI away, 81-67.
The losses dropped the Red Hawks into sixth place in the UCAA with only three games to play. Rensselaer rebounded Tuesday night with a 69-68 win at Vassar, but it may be too late. RPI is now 6-6, and Hobart and St. Lawrence are tied for fourth at 7-5; the Red Hawks are 1-1 against both teams this year. Only the top four teams get a postseason slot, so RPI needs to win both of its remaining games—and get some help besides—to have a chance. The Red Hawks play Skidmore on Friday night and conference leader Union on Saturday afternoon. Hobart and St. Lawrence will play each other on Saturday in Canton. In order for RPI to make the UCAA tournament, the winner of that game must lose the previous night, and RPI must beat both teams on tiebreakers.
