TROY, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team fell at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Friday evening, 82-79, to drop to 8-7 on the season and 4-4 in the Liberty League, while RPI improved to 10-5 and 5-3 in league play. Ithaca will head to Skidmore tomorrow afternoon, Jan. 19 at 3 p.m. to complete its road trip to the Capital District.

The Bombers trailed by nine points at halftime, 43-34, but answered with a 45-39 second half. IC was unable to overcome the nine-point deficit as the Engineers held on for an 82-79 victory.

Ithaca had an opportunity to win the game after junior Sebastian Alderete put in a layup with 10 seconds left in the contest to make the score, 80-79. The ensuing inbounds play was stolen by Alderete, but the follow up lay-in by senior Peter Ezema was off target and the Engineers broke out on a fast break and threw down a dunk to end the contest.

Alderete scored a team-high 25 points on 10-of-24 shooting from the floor to go along with eight rebounds, while junior Riley Thompson tallied 24 points on 8-of-16 attempts. Freshman Skylar Sinon posted 16 points on 7-of-10 with two assists before fouling out, while Ezema added seven points and five rebounds.

Ithaca jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the opening 1:17, and besides five different deadlocks, held onto its lead until the 8:29 mark as RPI went ahead, 19-18, on a jump shot by Tom Horvat.

With 6:44 left in the first half, a layup from Sinon put IC back on top, 23-21, but a 3-pointer from RPI flipped the lead back to the Engineers. Ithaca quickly went back on top, 25-24, with an Alderete jumper with 6:09 to go, but RPI answered 20 seconds later to vault back ahead for the remainder of the half.

RPI continued to control the contest as the second half began, but with 9:09 left in the game, Ithaca tied things up at 59-59 on a made bucket from Ezema. The Engineers went back ahead less than 30 seconds later and held onto the lead for the remainder of the game.

With 4:07 to go, RPI increased its lead to 10 points, 75-65, but the Bombers closed to within two points with a 10-2 run, 77-75, with just over a minute to go on 3-pointers from Thompson and sophomore Bryan Karl and three points from Alderete.

After three free throws from RPI made the difference 80-75 with 16 seconds left, two free throws from Thompson and a basket from Alderete set up the final possession of the game, which went the way of RPI.

Ithaca went 31-for-69 overall (44.9%) and 7-for-23 (30.4%) from 3-pointe range. RPI answered with a 30-for-64 (46.9%) evening and 14-for-19 (73.7%) at the free throw line. The Engineers outrebounded Ithaca, 44-34, which led to a plus-10 advantage in second chance points.

The Bombers head to Skidmore College tomorrow afternoon for a 3 p.m. contest.