SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The No. 20 Skidmore College men's basketball team is off to its best start in program history, remaining a perfect 6-0 after a 77-60 victory against Clarkson in Liberty League action Saturday afternoon at the Williamson Sports Center.
The Thoroughbreds beat the previous start set by the 2009-2010 team, which won its first five games of the season. This year's version is 6-0 and 2-0 after the opening weekend of league games, defeating opponents by an average of 17.5 points per game.
Clarkson falls to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in the league.
The Golden Knights put an early scare into the Thoroughbreds, as the teams traded leads throughout the first half. After a pair of Matt Higgins free throws for Clarkson tied the game at 36 at the 1:50 mark, Skidmore's
Marcus Jackson tipped in a missed 3-pointer on the next posession, giving Skidmore a 38-36 lead. With 25 seconds left,
Noah Meren found Jackson behind the Clarkson defense on the drive, laying it in to take a 40-36 lead into halftime.
From there, Skidmore took control in the second half, slowly wearing down the Golden Knights. Just like in last night's victory against St. Lawrence, the Thoroughbreds came out of the break on a run to push the advantage to double digits. This time, an 11-4 spurt gave the Thoroughbreds a 51-41 lead at the 16:37 mark. A pair of Clarkson threes reduced the deficit to five, at 54-49, before
Jack Byrne responded with a 3-pointer of his own, starting a back-breaking 13-1 run over a span of 9:31 to push the lead to its largest at 70-50. From there,
Pat Gallagher put the exclamation mark on the game in the 1:56 mark, swiping a Clarkson pass on one end, and going coast-to-coast with the fast break layup on the other end, giving Skidmore its largest lead at 74-52.
The Thoroughbreds shot a season-low 38.9 percent from the field in the game, but hit 10 threes, and went an impressive 25-for-32 from the free throw line to preserve the victory.
Edvinas Rupkus finished with 18 points to lead all scorers, adding seven rebounds and four assists.
Dakpe Yiljep and
Pat Gallagher each finished with 10 points. Byrne and
Noah Meren each chipped in nine points off the bench.
Matt Higgins, Liam Ellis, and Malaquias Canery each scored 11 to lead the Golden Knights. Clarkson, who came into the weekend as the best 3-point shooting team in the Liberty League, was held to just 28.6 percent shooting from beyond the arc, thanks in part to a stingy Skidmore defense.
"It was a good win against a quality opponent," said head coach
Joe Burke. "Clarkson is well-coached and can present some matchup problems. I thought our guys adjusted well in the second half and we were able to get the tempo of the game where we needed. Our league has some very good teams in it so playing back-to-back days will always be tough. We will shut it down for a little bit and then start preparing for a fun game against Middlebury on Friday."
That game against Middlebury will pit two of the top-20 teams in the latest D3hoops.com national rankings, with the Panthers sitting at No. 4. Tip-off for the game on Friday, Dec. 9 is slated for an early 6 p.m. start.
