CLARKS SUMMIT, PA – The RIT men's basketball team (10-7) had its three-game win streak snapped with an 82-68 loss at Baptist Bible College (2-15) on Monday evening. After leading at halftime, the Tigers were outscored 48-33 in the second half, shooting 35.3 percent from the floor.
RIT shot 41.5 percent from the field on 27-for-65 shooting. The Tigers shot 6-of-25 from behind the arc, and 8-of-18 from the foul line.
JP Reagan (Cortland, NY/Cortland) and
Miguel Lopez (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/St. Francis) led RIT with 11 points apiece.
Matt Gundrum (East Meadow, NY/East Meadow) added nine points, while
Casey Bobelis (Bradenton, FL/Braden River) and
Joe Stortini (Red Hook, NY/Loomis Chaffee) each scored eight.
Abe Valentine was one of four Defenders to score in double figures with 24 points. Mitch Raup tallied 17, while Dan Decker added 14 points. Aaron Clark scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
RIT fell behind early as Baptist Bible College opened the game by scoring the first 14 points. The Defenders took a 22-10 lead with 10:24 to play in the opening half on a Valentine layup.
RIT woke up and outscored Baptist Bible College 25-12 over the final 10 minutes of the half, taking a 35-34 halftime lead. Lopez led RIT with eight first-half points on 4-of-4 shooting from the floor. He tied the score at 29-29 with 3:56 to play in the half, and gave the Tigers their first lead of the game with his layup off an assist from
AJ Horde (Oak Park, MI/University of Detroit Jesuit).
RIT shot 48.4 percent from the floor in the first half on 15-of-31 shooting. Stortini, Gundrum and Bobelis keyed the RIT run, combining for 11 points off the bench in the first half.
Valentine scored the first five points of the second half for Baptist Bible College, giving the Defenders a 39-35 lead on his 3-pointer at the 18:17 mark of the half. He scored 13 of his 24 points in the second half.
Reagan drained a 3-pointer at the 17:09 mark of the second half to stop the Defenders' run, cutting the lead to 41-39. After a Baptist Bible College bucket, Stortini hit a jumper making it a 46-41 lead for BBC. The Tigers kept the deficit to within five points, getting as close as three points on a jumper from Reagan with 15:08 to play.
Over the next 7:57, Baptist Bible College would outscore RIT 19-9, taking a 66-52 lead on a 3-pointer from Decker with 9:51 to play. The Defenders would lead by as many as 20 points in the second half, shooting 58.3 percent from the floor over that span.
RIT scored 32 of its 68 points in the paint, and scored 12 points off of 17 Baptist Bible College turnovers. The Tigers scored 13 second chance points and got 36 points off the bench.
RIT falls to 3-1 all time versus BBC. This game was originally supposed to be played on Dec. 10, but was postponed due to inclement weather.
The Tigers return to action on Friday, Jan. 30 with a road contest at league foe Clarkson University that gets underway at 8 p.m.
