ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT (3-11, 0-6 Liberty League) men's basketball team won its first Liberty League game of the season with a 70-68 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (10-7, 5-5 Liberty League) Friday evening. Senior Jaymee Rosser (Newark, NY/Newark) sealed the win with a pair of free throws late in the regulation.

RIT shot 47.4 percent from the floor on 27-of-57 shooting. The Tigers went 4-of-10 from beyond the arc, and made an impressive 12-of-14 from the foul line. Will Atkinson (Orchard Park, NY/Canisius) was one of the three Tigers to score in double figures, finishing with 16 points. Chuck Okehie (Owings Mills, MD/McDonogh) tallied 10 points and had eight rebounds, while Curtis Nesbit (Woodbridge, NJ/Woodbridge) chipped in 12 points.

Patrick Mahoney led Rensselaer with a game-high 20 points to go along with eight rebounds. Tom Horvat tallied 14 points and six assists, while Andreas Kontopidis chipped in 12 points for the Engineers, who shot 40.9 percent from the floor.

Trailing 35-28 at halftime, RIT rallied in the second half, outscoring the Engineers 42-33 in the second stanza. Mahoney gave the Engineers a 41-31 lead at the 17:20 mark of the second half.

The Tigers responded with a 10-2 spurt, cutting the RPI lead to 43-41 on a jumper from Nesbit with 14:22 remaining in regulation.

Kontopidis gave RPI a 51-45 lead on his free throw with 11:28 to play. Once again, RIT responded, tying the game at 58-58 on a layup by Master Rashford with 6:03 remaining. Rosser gave RIT its first lead of the game with 2:06 remaining on his old-fashioned 3-point play to give the Tigers a 68-66 lead.

His free throws with 14 seconds remaining gave RIT a 70-66 lead. Horvat cut the lead to 70-68 on his bucket with nine seconds to play, but the Tigers defense held down the stretch to break their six-game losing skid.

RIT held a 40-33 rebounding edge and tallied 24 points in the paint.  

RIT returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 26 when the Tigers host Hobart College at 4 p.m. on the floor of Clark Gymnasium.