SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Skidmore College men's basketball overcame Bard's second-half push for a 75-63 Liberty League win on Tuesday evening.
 
Skidmore improves to 7-6 and 3-4 in the Liberty League, while Bard drops to 5-9 (1-6 Liberty League).
 
Tautvydas Kupstas and Greg Skoric led Skidmore in scoring with 25 and 17 points, respectively. Skoric put together his eighth double-double of the season with 11 rebounds. He also had four blocks. It's the fifth time Kupstas has reached the 25-point mark. Ty Lamport dropped 15, while Riley Greene had seven assists and two steals. Bobby Stratts scored six and had nine boards off the bench.    
 
Kevin Le was the leading scorer for Bard with 17 points. Eight Raptors played at least 10 minutes in the game, and none saw more than 27 minutes of action in the rotation. Bard was 10-of-27 from 3-point range. Stamatis Koulouris was 3-of-5 from deep to push the pace. Skidmore was 6-of-26 from beyond the arc.   
 
The Thoroughbreds used a 16-2 run in the middle of the first half to turn a tied game into a 14-point Skidmore lead.  The advantage grew to 20, its largest of the contest, when Skidmore scored the first six points of the second half.
 
An 11-1 Bard run, highlighted by a Tyler Bruns 3-pointer, made it a seven-point game with nine minutes left. Skidmore bounced back to score three of the next four buckets and a Lamport triple with 4:46 left made it an 11-point Skidmore lead. Bruns and Le hit threes on a short 8-2 Raptor run to get it to five with just over two minutes left.
 
Kupstas had a pair of layups and Skidmore made four free throws down the stretch to seal it. Skidmore dominated in the paint, 42-18, and scored 16 second-chance points to Bard's seven.   

"I was pleased with our effort and execution in the first half," said Skidmore coach Joe Burke. "In the second half, we let our guard down a bit and credit Bard for taking advantage of that. Their style of play becomes an issue if you not ready to guard for 40 minutes.
"Our only choice is to condition ourselves with in game minutes at this point so the guys really need to push through during this crazy stretch of games."

Skidmore will play the second game of its six-game home stand on Friday, Jan. 28 versus RIT. The Thoroughbreds will then host Union on Saturday, Jan. 29.