SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – The RIT men's basketball team (5-4, 0-1 Liberty League) fell to Skidmore College (4-5, 1-0 Liberty League), 78-66 in the Liberty League opener for both teams on Friday evening. It is the fourth straight loss in regular season play for the Tigers.
RIT shot 37.7 percent from the floor on 26-of-69 shooting. The Tigers went 8-of-27 from behind the arc, and were 6-of-7 from the foul line. The Thoroughbreds held a slight 37-36 rebounding advantage, as the Tigers tallied 34 points in the paint. Freshman guard
AJ Horde (Oak Park, MI/University of Detroit Jesuit) led RIT with 17 points, four assists and two steals.
Joe Stortini (Red Hook, NY/Loomis Chaffee) added 17 points and seven rebounds.
RIT led early when
Kamron Davis (Syracuse, NY/Nottingham) scored off a Horde assist giving the Tigers a 10-9 lead at the 13:51 mark of the first half. RIT led three times in the first half, the last coming with 9:23 to play when Stortini scored, giving RIT an 18-16 lead.
After a Skidmore run gave them the lead, Stortini drained a three with 6:06 to play in the first half, tying the score at 22-22. Isaac Carp capped off a burst by Skidmore, nailing a three with 4:45 to play, giving the Thoroughbreds a 28-22 lead. With 1:35 to play, Skidmore's Erik Sanders hit another three, giving the Thorughbreds a 33-24 lead. But, on RIT's next possession, Horde hit a three off a feed from
Matt Gundrum (East Meadow, NY/East Meadow) cutting the Skidmore lead to 33-27 at the break.
Aldin Medunjanin gave Skidmore a 33-27 lead early in the second half on his 3-pointer. Connor Merrill's layup with 18:15 to play gave the Thorouughbreds its largest lead of the game to that point at 36-27.
Trailing 43-33, Stortini got the offensive rebound off a Tigers miss and laid the ball in despite being fouled. The conversion of the old fashioned three-point play got the Tigers to within 43-36. After a Skimdore turnover,
Jay Rosser (Newark, NY/Newark) scored off a feed from
JP Reagan (Cortland, NY/Cortland) getting RIT as close as it would get to Skidmore in the second half, cutting the lead to 43-38.
Skidmore opened the lead up to 50-38 on a bucket by Merrill with 12:50 to play. The Thoroughbreds would lead by as many as 24 points in the second half, going on to the 12-point win.
The Tigers return to action on Saturday, January 3 when the Tigers face Rensselaer at 4 p.m. in Troy, N.Y.
