ITHACA, N.Y.— Edvinas Rupkus scored a season-high 39 points to lead the Skidmore College men's basketball team to a 68-62 in over Ithaca College in a Liberty League quarterfinal game Tuesday night in Ben Light Gymnasium.
 
The fifth seeded Thoroughbreds move into the Liberty League semifinals for the ninth straight year.
 
Skidmore (14-11) will travel to Geneva to take on top-seed Hobart in a 2 p.m. on Saturday. The winner will face the winner of the RIT and Union semifinal in Sunday's championship game at Hobart.
 
Ithaca had no answer for Rupkus who scored 27 of his 39 points in the second half. The talented junior was a perfect 13-13 (12-12 in the second half) from the line and 12-20 from the floor.
 
Noah Meren was also in double figures for the Thoroughbreds with 11 points, three blocks, and five steals. Ty Lamport has a career-high seven points off the bench.
 
Miles Herman scored 18 off the bench for Ithaca, while Peter Ezema had a double/double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
 
The Bombers took its largest lead of the game, 30-21 with 2:10 to play in the first half. Skidmore whittled it back to six at the half, 32-26. Skidmore struggled from three-point range in the half, hitting only 3-of-14 (21.4%).
 
The officials tightened it up in the second half, calling a combined 31 fouls. Skidmore took advantage, going 19-21 (90.5%) from the line. The Bombers had two players foul out, while the Thoroughbreds finished the game with three players at four fouls.
 
Skidmore kept it close to start the second half, taking the lead with 14:15 to play 39-38 on an old fashioned three-point play by Meren. The Thoroughbreds never trailed after that thanks to clutch shooting by Rupkus.
 
Up 60-59, Rupkus hit a pair of free throws with 1:31 to play to make it 62-59. Two possessions later he drained a three-pointer as the shot clock expired and the game clock read :19 to effectively put the game away 65-59.
 
"Gutsy effort by the guys," said Skidmore coach Joe Burke. "Winning on the road is hard, winning on the road in the playoffs is even harder. Usually it takes a special effort by one or two guys on the offensive end and the team to really lock in as a group defensively and we got both of those tonight.

"We earned a seat at the table and now it's up to us to figure out how much we want to eat. I'm pretty sure we will be hungry again come Saturday."
 
For the game, Skidmore was 21-56 (37.5) from the floor, including 4-22 (18.2%) from beyond the arc. The Thoroughbreds hit 22 of 28 (78.6) free throws. Ithaca was 23-55 (41.8%) from the floor and 1-8 from three-point range. The Bombers went 15-19 (78.9) from the line.