TROY, NY – The Skidmore College men's basketball team wrapped up its weekend road trip with a 76-56 setback at RPI on Saturday afternoon.

The Thoroughbreds (5-6, 1-3 Liberty League) experienced another tale of two halves after starting hot and shooting 50 percent from the field in a tightly-contested opening period before cooling off to 26.7 percent in the second half. A 13–0 scoring run out of intermission allowed the Engineers (9-4, 5-1 Liberty League) to pull away and proved too much for Skidmore to overcome.

"Today was a similar script to last night. We had our chances especially in the first half but we just haven't been able to string together two halves consistently," said head coach Joe Burke. 

"We knew this was going to be a tough weekend and we had to play well for 40 minutes and we just didn't do that."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• RPI started the game red hot by jumping out to a double-digit advantage, 19-8, with 11:08 on the clock.
• Skidmore rallied back with a 16-7 run to cut the deficit down to a lone possession, 26-24, at the 5:33 mark and get back into the game, the turnaround was powered by a pair of three-pointers from senior Charlie Weisberg and nine combined points from the freshman duo of Will Wertz and Jacob Gooden.
• Heading into intermission, the Engineers led narrowly by a 36-31 margin over Skidmore, which was led by nine points from Gooden alongside seven from Wertz.
• The Engineers opened the second half with a 13–0 run to extend their lead to 49–31 at the 15:46 mark, as the Thoroughbreds went 0-for-6 from the field to begin the half.
• Gooden ended the scoring drought by drawing a foul on a driving layup and converting the old-fashioned three-point play to finally put Skidmore on the board and sparking a brief surge that saw the Thoroughbreds trim the deficit to 51-38 with 12:33 on the clock.
• However, the momentum ended there as the Engineers re-extended the lead back up to 20 points and went on to secure the win.
• For the game, the Thoroughbreds lost the possession battle by doubling up RPI in turnovers, 14-to-7, while also losing in fast break points, 18-to-9, and second-chance points, 12-to-4.

STANDOUT THOROUGHBREDS

• Gooden scored a game-high 19 points.
• Aidan Roy totaled 11 points with five rebounds and two assists.
• Weisberg put up 12 points on a trio of three-pointers.

UP NEXT
Skidmore is back on the road next Friday to take on St. Lawrence at 7:30 PM.