ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT (7-6, 3-3 Liberty League) men's basketball team fell to Hobart College (7-5, 2-1 Liberty League), 83-73 in Liberty League action from Clark Gym Tuesday evening. The Tigers fall to 46-36 all-time versus the Statesmen, and have not beaten Hobart since the 2006-07 season.
RIT shot 41.7 percent from the floor on 25-of-60 shooting. The Tigers went 10-of-28 from behind the arc, and were 13-of-21. Freshman guard
AJ Horde (Oak Park, MI/University of Detroit Jesuit) led RIT with 24 points, 20 of which came over the opening 20 minutes of play.
Kamron Davis (Syracuse, NY/Nottingham) added 10 points and eight rebounds, while
Joe Stortini (Red Hook, NY/Loomis Chaffee) and
Jesse Warech (Pinebrook, NJ/Montville Township) each tallied eight points for the Tigers.
RIT trailed by as many 12 points in the first half, shooting 48.1 percent from the floor. Horde led the Tigers with 20 first-half points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 5-of-7 from 3-point land. Despite Horde's hot shooting, the Tigers trailed 41-37 at the break. Connor Rehbaum, who finished with a game-high 30 points, led the Statesmen with 15 first-half points.
The Tigers fell behind by eight points early in the second half when Rehbaum drained a jumper off an assist from Zach Grattan giving the Statesmen a 49-41 lead. A Stortini layup with 14:09 to play capped off a 6-0 mini run by the Tigers, cutting the Hobart lead to 49-47.
Two straight Rehbaum 3-pointers extended the Hobart lead back to eight points. The second came with 12:07 to play in regulation off an assist from Dominique Petty-Fernander.
Casey Bobelis (Bradenton, FL/Braden River) cut the Hobart lead to 59-54 with 8:14 to play off an assist from Clay.
The Statesmen went on a 15-1 run, extending their lead to 74-55 on another Rehbaum long range bomb with 3:17 to play. He made three of his five 3-pointers in the second half.
The Tigers scored 26 points in the paint and 16 points off 13 Hobart turnovers. RIT scored 14 second chance points and got 28 points off the bench.
RIT returns to action on Friday, when Bard College comes to Clark Gym for an 8 p.m. opening tip.
