ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – The Skidmore College men's basketball team couldn't recover from a rare cold shooting performance in the first half, falling to Bard 70-61 in Liberty League action Friday night.
The Thoroughbreds snap a six-game winning streak, falling to 14-6 overall, and 9-2 in league play. The Raptors win their first league contest of the season, improving to 1-10 in the league and 3-17 overall.
Skidmore and Bard split the season series this season, with both teams winning at home. The Thoroughbreds defeated the Raptors 82-54 on Jan. 21 in Saratoga Springs.
Three players scored in double figures for the Thoroughbreds Senior guard
Aldin Medunjanin led the way with an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double. Sophomore guard Edvinus Rupkus also notched a double-double, scoring 16 points and adding 10 rebounds. He also blocked three shots. Sophomore guard
Jack Byrne finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.
Harry Johnson led the Raptors with 17 points, adding four steals. Christopher Rogers scored 13 points, while Chris Lockwood added 11.
Skidmore was cold from the start, making one of its first nine shots and struggling to get open looks. While Bard shot 40 percent from the field in the first half, Skidmore shot 25 percent, including 1-for-15 from beyond the three-point arc. The Thoroughbreds trailed 32-24 at halftime.
Bard scored the first nine points of the second half to take its biggest lead of the night, 41-24. Skidmore chipped away, and a couple of free throws by Rupkus with 7:44 left trimmed the deficit to 49-41. But Skidmore never got closer than eight the rest of the way and saw its six-game winning streak snapped.
Skidmore finished the game 4-for-30 from three-point land and 35 percent shooting from the field, but still held Bard to 36.8 percent shooting from the field overall.
"All the credit goes to Bard," said Skidmore men's basketball head coach
Joe Burke. "They had a great game plan and it was effective. I thought the layoff certainly hurt us but at the end of the day you can't make excuses, we missed a ton of shots we usually make and they played us exactly how I would play us. They were the deserving team tonight."
"We will bounce back. Our margin of error is razor thin with our roster right now. We can't afford anyone to have an off night and tonight everyone was off, including us as coaches. We look forward to getting back on the court tomorrow against a Vassar team that will be just as hungry."
The Thoroughbreds will next travel to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to take on Vassar Saturday at 4 p.m.
