The men’s basketball team ended their season on a sour note, blowing a 15-point lead in the final 10:58 to lose to conference-leading Union College 61-58 on Saturday. The previous night, the Red Hawks won a surprisingly tough 60-54 match against the hapless Skidmore Thoroughbreds, who finished the season with a 1-13 UCAA mark.
The shooting by both teams in Friday’s match was poor—neither team cleared 30 percent from the floor—and only a couple of extra threes instead of twos for Skidmore kept the first half from being completely even.
The Red Hawks came out of the locker room down by two to the worst team in the league, but they could not turn around their shooting game. Fortunately for Rensselaer, Skidmore put RPI into the bonus in the second half in record time, and the Red Hawks hit 22 of their 31 foul shots in the half to notch the win.
The Union game started out in a much more positive fashion for RPI. Unlike the previous night, the Red Hawks were able to get their shots to fall, and the defense played quite well, holding Aaron Galletta, the Dutchmen’s career scoring leader, to 13 points in the half. Only Union’s 5-for-10 mark from downtown kept the score close, and Rensselaer went to the locker room with a hard-fought 32-26 lead.
As the second half began, RPI went on a tear. For the first nine minutes, nearly every shot by the Red Hawks found the bottom of the net, while the Dutchmen were quite effectively contained. A resounding slam dunk by Hite with 10:58 remaining put the Red Hawks up by 15, and it appeared that they had all of the momentum going their way.
Suddenly, though, the Red Hawks completely ran out of steam. Their shooting woes of the night before returned with even greater intensity, and the Dutchmen finally found their stride, going on a 23-4 run to take a 60-56 lead with less than a minute remaining.
An RPI bucket closed the gap to two, and they quickly fouled, putting Galletta on the line with a chance to put the game away for the Dutchmen. He missed the second of the two free throws, but a rebound by Union appeared to ice the game. The Union player, however, stepped out of bounds, giving the Red Hawks a chance to tie with 12 seconds remaining. RPI got the ball up the court, but the attempted three-pointer was blocked, sealing the game for Union.
The Red Hawks end the season with an 11-12 record overall and tied for fifth in the conference with a 7-7 mark. The new playoff format this year limits postseason play to only the top four teams, which means that RPI will not be participating in the UCAA tournament at Union this weekend.
