GENEVA, NY – The Skidmore College men's basketball team fell on the road to Hobart, 82-68, to kick off the weekend road trip on Friday evening.

The Thoroughbreds (5-17, 1-14 Liberty League) fought hard in the first half on both ends of the court, with the bigmen duo of junior Joey Skoric and senior Alexei Downie combining for 21 first-half points to keep the Thoroughbreds in the game, but ultimately ran out of steam in the second half as the Statesmen (15-7, 9-6 Liberty League) utilized a prolonged scoring run to pull away for good.

"We fought hard and had some chances to take the lead into the halftime break, but we did not capitalize. In the second half, I thought we wore down and just could not stop their big run and that's when the game got away from us," said head coach Joe Burke.
 
"Beauty of this league is we get to lace them up tomorrow with another opportunity to get better."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Thoroughbreds battled hard in the first half on the road, never letting Hobart make a major scoring run as the game shifted between five ties and seven total lead changes.
• Late in the half, with 3:34 remaining, sophomore Dillon McCafferty knocked down a three-pointer off the assist from fellow classmate Aidan Roy to help Skidmore take a 29-28 lead.
• The Statesmen responded by retaking the lead with a 11-5 run with less than a minute to go, before Skoric made a layup in the closing seconds to pull the Thoroughbreds to within a management 40-35 deficit.
• Sophomore Charlie Fantom led the charge to begin the second half by scoring seven points in the early portion of the half to keep Skidmore in a 60-53 deficit at the 11:28 mark.
• However, Hobart blew the game wide open after going on a scoring spree that saw the home team score 16 unanswered points to take a commanding 76-53 lead with 6:32 left and never looked back.

STANDOUT THOROUGHBREDS

• Downie led the team with 18 points to go with nine rebounds and a block.
• Roy finished with 16 points, five assists and five rebounds.
• Fantom recorded 12 points to go with four steals.
• Skoric had 11 points to go with five rebounds and four assists.
• McCafferty led the bench with six points on a pair of made three-pointers.

UP NEXT
The Thoroughbreds are set to wrap up the road trip tomorrow in a 2 PM matchup at RIT.