TROY, NY -- The RIT (6-3, 0-1 Liberty League) men's basketball team opened Liberty League play on the road on Friday afternoon, falling to Rensselaer (7-3, 1-0 Liberty League) by a score of 74-70 at East Campus Arena.

Troy Pierre-Louis (Providence, RI/Berkshire School) led RIT with a career-high 20 points. AJ Horde (Oak Park, MI/University of Detroit Jesuit) scored 15 points, while Marcell Davis (Buffalo, NY/St. Joseph's Institute) added 14 points.

The Tigers shot 40.6 percent from the floor on 28-of-69 shooting. RIT went 9-of-20 from behind the arc, and was 5-of-8 from the foul line. Horde led the Tigers with seven rebounds and five assists, while Pierre-Louis grabbed five rebounds. Anthony Lewis (Rochester, NY/Churchville-Chili) led RIT with three steals.

Andreas Kontopidis led RPI with 18 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Tom Horvat scored 17 points, while Jonathan Luster chipped in 12 points for the Engineers, who shot 44.8 percent for the game.

Rensselaer led by as many as 16 points in the first half, as Horvat gave the Engineers a 31-15 lead on his bucket with 9:05 to play. RIT would respond with a 21-6 run, pulling to within a point on a layup by Horde with 1:18 to play in the half. Davis keyed the run, scoring six of RIT's 21 points. Horde scored five points to help bring the Tigers back. 

Kontopidis scored late to make it 39-36 RPI at the half. The Tigers scored 16 points in the paint in the first half, and tallied six points off of turnovers.

RPI opened the second half with a 12-2 run to take a 13-point lead, 51-38.

With 8:42 to play, Pierre-Louis nailed a jumper to cut the RPI lead to 56-52. That capped off a 14-5 run by the Tigers to get back in the game. Two straight buckets by Rensselaer got the lead back to 62-54 with 5:39 to play.

Jaymee Rosser (Newark, NY/Newark) got RIT back to within four points with his basket with 4:19 to play to make it 62-58 Rensselaer. That would be as close as the Tigers would get to RPI, as the Engineers were able to hold on for the win.

The Tigers tallied 32 points in the pain, and held a 42-35 rebounding edge.

RIT returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 31 when the Tigers face Skidmore College at 12 p.m. in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.