ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT (11-10, 6-6 Liberty League) men's basketball team fell by a score of 73-64 at home to Skidmore College (12-7, 9-2 Liberty League) on Saturday afternoon. With the loss, RIT slips behind St. Lawrence for the fourth and final tournament spot in the conference standings.

RIT shot 36.8 percent from the floor on 21-of-57 shooting. The Tigers made 5-of-19 from behind the arc, and went 17-of-22 from the foul line. AJ Horde (Oak Park, MI/University of Detroit Jesuit) led RIT with 13 points, and two assists. Kamron Davis (Syracuse, NY/Nottingham) and Miguel Lopez (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/St. Francis) each scored 10 points, while JP Reagan (Cortland, NY/Cortland) and Casey Bobelis (Bradenton, FL/Braden River) each tallied nine points.

Connor Merrill led Skidmore with 19 points and six rebounds. Erik Sanders tallied 18 points and grabbed nine, while Aldin Medunjanin tallied 15 points and had seven assists for the Thoroughbreds who shot 37.1 percent from the floor.

RIT jumped out early, scoring the first seven points of the game. Lopez gave the Tigers a 7-0 on his layup a little over two minutes into the game. Skidmore responded with a 9-2 burst, tying the game at 9-9 on a bucket by Merrill. Neither team led by more than seven points in the first half, with six ties. Horde drained a long three with three seconds to play in the half tying the score at 27-27 at the break.

RIT shot 39.1 percent from the floor in the opening half on 9-of-23 shooting. Bobelis led RIT with seven first-half points, while Horde tallied six.

Merrill gave the Thoroughbreds a 43-40 lead at the 13:36 mark of the second half on a pair of free throws. The Tigers responded with a 9-0 run, taking a 49-43 lead on a layup by Matt Gundrum (East Meadow, NY/East Meadow).

RIT maintained the lead until the 7:13 mark when Sanders made a pair of free throws giving Skidmore a 52-51 lead. As in the first half, neither team could take a commanding lead. Skidmore finally pulled away inside the last five minutes as RIT went cold from the field.
 
Royce Paris gave the Thoroughbreds the lead back for good on his bucket off an assist from Medunjanin with 4:45 to play. The Thoroughbreds made clutch free throws down the stretch to hold on for the nine point win.

Skidmore held a 45-34 rebounding edge, tallying 24 points in the paint to 30 for RIT. The Tigers scored 14 points off 10 Skidmore turnovers, and got 14 points off the bench. With the win, Skidmore takes 6-5 lead in the all time series.

RIT returns to action on Friday, Feb. 13 when the Tigers face Liberty League foe Vassar College at 8 p.m. in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.