SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It's the third Liberty League weekend sweep of the season for the Skidmore College men's basketball team, who notched its second victory of the weekend, beating Ithaca by a 75-66 margin at the Williamson Sports Center Saturday afternoon.
Skidmore (10-6, 8-2 Liberty League) moves a game in the loss column behind current league leader St. Lawrence with the win. Ithaca drops both games this weekend, falling to 8-8 and 4-5.
The Thoroughbreds got off to a rolling start offensively, taking an early 7-5 lead on a
Ryan Murunge 3-pointer, never looking back in the first half. The Thoroughbreds hit four straight treys to spur a 12-2 run in 3:27, taking a 30-15 lead at the 8:19 mark. Skidmore shot 41 percent from the field and went 7-for-15 (46.7 percent) from beyond the arc in the opening half, holding a 39-25 lead.
Skidmore got off to a similar hot start in the second half. Baskets by Murunge,
Chase Ta, and
Noah Meren sparked a 7-3 spurt as Skidmore held its largest lead of the game at 18 (46-28). Ithaca would chip away at the deficit, going on a pair of 7-0 runs to reduce the Skidmore lead to just four, at 58-54. The Bombers would get no closer than four, as the Thoroughbreds hung tough in the final 5:42 of regulation. Meren and
Edvinas Rupkus combined to score Skidmore's final 17 points of the game to hold off the Ithaca rally.
"We showed some resiliency today," said head coach
Joe Burke. "We talked about doing a better job of making the tough plays this weekend and I thought we did enough of that. I am not much of a stat guy, but to hold a team like Ithaca to 36% from the field and 30% from the 3-point line is a number we are happy with. Solid first half of conference play but we have plenty of room for improvement if we keep working hard at it."
Meren led the Thoroughbreds with 24 points, adding seven rebounds and two steals. Rupkus added a hard-earned 22 points, adding six rebounds and three assists. Murunge tallied his first career double-double with a season-best 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Pat Gallagher added seven points coming off the bench.
Peter Ezema led Ithaca with a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double. Sebastian Alderete added 16 points. Skidmore held the Bombers, the second-highest scoring team in the Liberty League at 81.3 points per game, to its lowest scoring output of the season.
Skidmore will continue the home stand next weekend, as Capital Region foes Union and RPI head to the Williamson Sports Center. Friday's game vs. Union will begin at 7 p.m.
