SCHENECTADY, N.Y.— All-American
Edvinas Rupkus scored 23 points, including 12 in the final 4:44 to lead Skidmore College to a 90-83 Liberty League win over Union College Saturday evening at the Viniar Athletic Center.
The win keeps the Thoroughbreds in first place at 5-0 and 7-3 overall. The Dutchmen drop to 1-3 and 4-5.
The game was a rematch of the 2018 Liberty League championship game, won by Union.
A big difference this time around was the presence of Rupkus who missed most of that game with an injury. The crafty guard was 8-12 (,667) from the floor, including 4-6 (.667) from beyond the arc. He also had three assists and three steals.
All five Skidmore starters were in double figures.
Chase Ta had a double/double the tough way with 14 points and 10 assists.
Noah Meren (20),
Dakpe Yiljep (15) and
Greg Skoric (12) were all double digit scores.
Brendan Laing led Union with 22 points.
Skidmore came flying out of the gate to take a 20-9 lead at 14:30 behind three straight Rupkus threes. The Thoroughbreds methodically inched the lead to as many as 16 before taking a 50-36 lead into the break.
Rupkus (11), Yiljep (11) and Meren (10) were all in double figures after the half. Skidmore hit 8 of 12 (66.7%) threes and scored 14 points off eight Dutchmen turnovers.
Union staged a second half comeback, hitting six threes to cut the Thoroughbred lead to one 70-69 on a Kevin Jefferson three with 6:27 to play.
It was Rupkus and Meren time after that. The impressive pair combined to Skidmore's final 20 points to secure the win.
"Good weekend for us," said Skidmore coach Joe Burke. "We knew coming out of a long break and having to play back to back road conference games was going to be a huge challenge. I thought we had a great week of practice and the guys were ready to go so we are happy to come out 2-0.
Skidmore travels to Division I Yale on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game.
"We now get the unique opportunity to play in a historic arena against a team that is not only Division I, but is a really really good DI team and program. This will be a fun and special trip, we're going to embrace every minute of it and look forward to yet another challenge."
