ANNONDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY – The RIT (12-11, 7-7 Liberty League) men's basketball team dropped a critical conference game, losing 73-58 at Bard on Saturday. The loss drops the Tigers into a tie for fourth with St. Lawrence for the final Liberty League Tournament spot.

RIT shot 33.3 percent from the floor on 21-of-63 shooting. The Tigers made 5-of-22 from behind the arc, and went 11-of-22 from the foul line. AJ Horde (Oak Park, MI/University of Detroit Jesuit) led RIT with 17 points. Miguel Lopez (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/St. Francis) added 12 points and six rebounds, while Joe Stortini (Red Hook, NY/Loomis Chaffee) tallied nine points.

Siondueh Burnette was one of four Raptors to score in double figures with 19 points. Alex Fabean-Scotch tallied 14 points, while DeVahnte Mosley added 13 points and eight rebounds. Burnette led Bard with 11 board.

RIT led on three occasions early in the first half. Buckets from Horde, Stortini and Lopez gave the Tigers an early advantage. Fabean-Scotch gave the Raptors the lead for good with his 3-pointer at the 16:17 mark of the first half.

Bard would slowly extend its lead as the first half wore on, leading by as many as 13 points. A layup by Lopez with 1:17 to play cut the Raptors lead to 35-24. Sheldon Clay (Detroit, MI/University of Detroit Jesuit) had a chance to cut into the Bard lead further, but his shot with :38 to play came off the rim as Bard took a 35-24 lead into halftime.

RIT shot 34.5 percent from the floor in the opening half on 10-of-29 shooting. Horde led RIT with nine first-half points, while Lopez tallied eight.

After falling behind by 13 early in the second half, Kamron Davis (Syracuse, NY/Nottingham) (Syracuse, NY/Nottingham) rattled off six straight RIT points, helping the Tigers to pull within nine points with his bucket at the 18:28 mark of the second half. JP Reagan (Cortland, NY/Cortland) (Cortland, NY/Cortland) drained a 3-pointer with a little less than 18 minutes to play, cutting the Raptors lead to 38-32. That would be as close as the Tigers would get, as Bard slowly pulled away in the second half, leading by as many as 16 points.

RIT would get within eight points on a 3-pointer from Horde with 5:12 to play, but the Tigers could not get any closer, falling for the first time in eight games to the Raptors

RIT returns to action on Wednesday, Feb. 18 when the Tigers face Liberty League foe Hobart College at 8 p.m. in Geneva, N.Y.