MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Skidmore College men's basketball team erased a 17-point first half deficit, but couldn't hold on in the game's final seconds, falling to Middlebury 72-71 at the Pepin Gym Saturday afternoon.
 
The Thoroughbreds fall to 5-3 with the loss heading into the holiday break, while Middlebury improves to 7-1.
 
Edvinas Rupkus led the Thoroughbreds with 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the field, adding three steals. Marcus Jackson and Royce Paris each tallied 13 points, with Jackson adding a block.
 
Guard Jake Brown led the Panthers with 22 points, nearly tallying a double-double with nine assists. Guard Matt St. Armor and forward Zach Baines each chipped in 11 points.
 
In a matchup between two teams that are receiving votes in the latest d3hoops.com national rankings, it was Middlebury who came out on fire from the field, shooting 51.4 percent, while taking advantage of Skidmore turnovers to push the lead to as many as 45-28 on a put back by Matt Folger. An old-fashioned three-point play by forward Pat Gallagher with 29 seconds left in the half cut into the Panther lead, as they headed into halftime with the 45-31 advantage.
 
Skidmore spent most of the second half chipping away at the deficit. After Paris fed Jackson with the easy layup to reduce the deficit to two, Paris took it into his own hands on the next Thoroughbred possession, scoring off a deflected pass to tie the game at 64 with 5:48 to go. Off a Middlebury miss over minute later, guard Chase Ta fed guard Aldin Medunjanin with 3-pointer from the wing, giving Skidmore its first lead since 2-0.
 
Both teams took control of the lead down the stretch. Rupkus sank a jumper to give the Thoroughbreds a 71-70 lead, then Brown grabbed an offensive rebound on the other end and hit a short jumper to give Middlebury the 72-71 lead with just over a minute to go. Skidmore had the ball with the chance to win the game on the final possession, but Paris' shot from beyond the arc was blocked by St. Amour as the clock ran out.
 
The Thoroughbreds shot 53.8 percent from the field in the contest, while the Panthers were held to 46.8 percent shooting. Middlebury outrebounded Skidmore 33-28, and forced Skidmore into a season-high 21 turnovers.

"It's tough to come out on the wrong end of this one," said Skidmore College men's basketball head coach Joe Burke. "It was a terrific basketball game between two good ball teams. It was obviously a tale of 2 halves; they played great in the first 20 and I thought we responded and played great in the 2nd half. At the end they made one more play then we did. We now have to shift our focus towards final exams and getting better in practice over the next 20 days as conference play is upon us."
 
Skidmore will begin Liberty League play in their next contest, returning home to face Vassar on Dec. 30 at 4 p.m.