Red Hawks bounced by Knights in ECAC tourney

Entering the ECAC tournament first round game on March 3 at Robison Gymnasium against SUNY Geneseo, the Rensselaer men’s basketball team thought things couldn’t get any worse.

Just three days earlier, the Red Hawks had fallen victim to a unbeatable shooting performance by Hamilton as the Continentals stole not only the UCAA tournament championship, but also a much desired ticket to the big dance, the NCAA tournament.

However, the nightmare was just beginning for Rensselaer as the third seeded Red Hawks lost to the Knights of SUNY Geneseo 80-67 once again due to another phenomenal shooting display by Rensselaer’s opponent.

The Knights, the 14th best shooting squad in all of NCAA Division III, certainly lived up to their title as Geneseo shot 54 percent from both inside and outside the three point arc knocking off the higher-seeded RPI squad in a hard fought contest.

Guards Joe Zera and Steve McDonnell combined for 11 of the Knights 13 three-pointers, scoring 24 and 21, respectively.

“They got on rhythm and they outplayed us,” Rensselaer Head Coach Mike Griffin said after the game. “They shot it well and forced us to go to the man-to-man on defense.”

Rensselaer was slow to react in the 3-2 zone and in the man-to-man set as Geneseo seemed to be in control of the game despite only taking a minimal 38-35 lead into halftime.

In the second half, the game continued in the same fashion as the first, with more outstanding shooting from the Knights, and a scrappy Rensselaer squad refusing to go away quietly.

Behind the 18 point, eight rebound effort of senior Jared Hite, RPI stayed in the game. Hite was nearly unstoppable, that is until the Knights began triple teaming the Red Hawks big man, even before he received the ball.

“They were refusing to let Hite beat them,” Griffin said. “This was not first time a team did this to Jared, but today the rest of the guys did not shoot as well as in other games.”

Timely three’s by junior John Van Schaick, who finished with 13, and several acrobatic drives by junior Paris Moore, who added 14, kept the Red Hawks in the game, but the continuous onslaught of three’s by the Knights proved to be too much for Rensselaer to overcome.

Despite the disappointing loss to end the season, Griffin was pleased with this year’s results.

The Red Hawks improved to their record from 13-13 in 2002-2003 to 16-11 in 2003-2004, and with most of team’s talent returning the future looks bright for RPI.

The Red Hawks will lose two seniors in Greg Harrison and UCAA First Team member Hite, and replacing Hite is much easier said than done.

“This is a good year to build on,” Griffin said. “Hite is a big loss, but we have good players coming back. We will be a much different team as we try to utilize the talents of the players we have.”

With Hite and Harrison, two of the team’s few big men departing, next season’s Red Hawks will have a much more guard orientated attack.

Guards Moore, Kori Massey, Neal Wesson, David Easely along with forwards Van Schaick, Matt Zepernick, and Tom Schneider will all have to pick up the slack on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor in order for the Red Hawks to improve for yet another season.

Now thanks to SUNY Geneseo, the Red Hawks will have an even longer off-season to ponder about the next season, and what could have been in this year’s campaign. Perhaps it will provide just the right fuel to the fire to motivate the team over the eight long months of waiting that lay ahead of them.