For St. Lawrence and the Saints’ Aaron Marshall, Saturday afternoon’s dramatic match up with the RPI men’s basketball team was beyond memorable, while the Red Hawks simply want to forget January 22.

Marshall dropped in 34 points on 15-of-19 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Saints rallied from a three-point halftime deficit to upset host Rensselaer 83-76 in overtime at the Armory.

The loss is both perplexing and frustrating for Rensselaer Head Coach Mike Griffin and the Red Hawks, who had successfully contained Marshall in previous contests by implementing a 3-2 zone, a defense RPI ran constantly last season.

However, Marshall’s size and strength was too much for the undersized RPI frontline.

“[Marshall] is a big boy,” Rensselaer junior forward Matt Zepernick said after last weekend’s game. Zepernick would know given that he, along with junior forward Tom Schneider, were forced to engage St. Lawrence’s 6-5, 205-pound forward nearly the entire game.

“He’s the best player in the league,” Griffin said. “If you were putting together a lineup of the best players in the league, I’d take Marshall first.”

The Buffalo, N.Y, native played 43 of the game’s 45 minutes in an effort to hold off Paris Moore and a surging RPI squad, which was desperately attempting to emerge from an eight-point second-half hole.

With RPI trailing 64-56 with 8:43 remaining in the game, Moore hit a three-pointer that ignited the Red Hawks down the stretch. The senior guard led Rensselaer with 27 points in the game.

An RPI jumper by senior guard John Van Schaick tied the game at 66 apiece at the 4:15 mark. Rensselaer would eventually take the lead on two Moore free-throws at the 3:14 mark before Marshall answered quickly with a lay-up. Zepernick gave RPI the lead again with two more from the charity stripe, only to have Marshall answer less than a minute later, sending the game to overtime, 70-70.

In the game’s extra session, Marshall finally got some help as Matt Blue and Jimmy White hit early consecutive three’s to seal RPI’s fate. Kevin Sullivan and Blue were the only other two Saints in double-digits, with 15 and 10 points, respectively.

Rensselaer had a more balanced scoring attack. Van Schaick paced RPI with 15 points, while Zepernick and Schneider tallied 12 and 11 apiece. RPI dominated St. Lawrence in every significant statistical category, doubling the Saints’ offensive rebounding total, forcing St. Lawrence to commit 15 turnovers compared to just three for the Red Hawks, and grabbing seven steals to the Saints’ one.

Despite RPI’s solid performance they came short up in the most important category, points, as they shot a mediocre 37 percent compared with St. Lawrence’s 55 percent.

“We certainly had our chances,” Griffin said. “We failed to get the ball in the basket when we needed to. You have to make shots to win games.”

RPI also struggled from the field against a lesser Clarkson team on Friday, January 21, but were nevertheless able to cruise to an easy victory against the Liberty League’s lightest competition. Moore again led the team with 19 points, while Schneider added 18 and Van Schaick scored 14.

However, the team again shot a poor 37 percent versus the Golden Knights, including 16 percent from beyond the three-point arc. This alarming trend has not gone unnoticed by the Rensselaer players who realize, along with their coach, their shooting must drastically improve, especially with defending league champion Hamilton coming to Troy this Friday.

“We all need to get into the gym and take some extra shots,” senior point guard Kori Massey said. “These next two games are crucial.”

The Red Hawks, who are halfway through a four-game home stand, are now 9-7 overall and 2-3 in the Liberty League. Friday night’s 8 pm battle with Hamilton in the Armory will be critical for Rensselaer to reestablish themselves among the elites in the conference. The Red Hawks will go for the sweep against a much improved Hobart squad on Saturday at 4 pm in the Armory.

“You can’t lose your home games in this conference,” Griffin said. “We had better find a way to win ours.”