ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team will begin postseason play tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. inside Ben Light Gymnasium as the Bombers welcome Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to South Hill for a Liberty League quarterfinal showdown. Ithaca, which is 15-10 overall and went 11-7 in the Liberty League, earned the No. 4 seed in the six-team tournament, while RPI is 15-10 (10-8) and secured the fifth seed. The winner of tomorrow night's game will head to Saratoga Springs this weekend to battle host and top seed Skidmore College at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

GAME COVERAGE

LIVE STATS | ICTV | STRETCH WEBCAST (WICB AUDIO)

STATISTICS

ITHACA | RPI | LIBERTY LEAGUE

HOW WE GOT HERE: Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, Ithaca clinched a playoff spot, but seeding was still up in the air as the Bombers owned a one-game lead over RPI and Bard College. IC needed a victory over Bard on Feb. 15 to even the season series, and did just that with an 87-83 victory. The Bombers then faced Vassar College the next afternoon and needed another triumph, which took place with an 89-62 victory, to fend off RPI from leaping IC for the fourth spot.

The Engineers made a late surge this season to enter the playoff picture. In late-January, early-February, RPI dropped five of six league games to fall to 6-8 in the standings with just four games left in the season. RPI would rally to win those final four contests, including a crucial victory over then first place St. Lawrence to move into fifth place.

SEASON SERIES VS. THE ENGINEERS: Ithaca and RPI have played two of the more exciting games on both teams' schedule this season. On. Jan. 18 in Troy, the Engineers came away with an 82-79 win after the Bombers made a late rally. With 3:34 left in regulation, RPI held a 10-point lead over IC, but the Bombers pulled to within a point at 80-79 with 10 seconds left. IC stole the ensuing inbounds pass but missed a potential game-winning shot and RPI put the contest away with a dunk on the other end.

IC got its revenge on Feb. 2, as the Bombers posted an 89-85 overtime win in Ben Light Gymnasium. Roles were reversed in the encore as IC led RPI, 75-70, with 30 seconds left in regulation. RPI trimmed its deficit to three points on a pair of made free throws with 20 seconds to go, and then sent the game to overtime on a typing 3-pointer from Tom Horvat with five ticks on the clock.

In the extra session, RPI led by three points, 81-78, with 2:35 to go, but eight straight points from the Bombers (four each from Riley Thompson and Skylar Sinon) over the next 1:48 change the course of the game.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: The Bombers have three main scoring options in Thompson (18.0 PPG), Sebastian Alderete (15.6 PPG) and Peter Ezema (14.4 PPG), but don't be surprised if Sinon (8.9 PPG), Matt Flood (8.9 PPG) or Bryan Karl (8.7 PPG) reach double figures in Tuesday's contest.

On the defensive end, Ezema leads the Liberty League with 8.9 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game.

Ithaca is the highest scoring team in the Liberty League at 82.5 points per game and can light it up from 3-point range as the Bombers average 10.5 makes a game from beyond the arc.

Cooper Macklin, George Sikoryak III and Zach Warech also see more than 10 minutes of action per game. Jake Mitchell, who has been sidelined for most of the season, made his return back into the rotation last Saturday.

For RPI, Horvat drives the Engineers at 16.3 points per game, while Patrick Mahoney (14.5 PPG) and Andreas Kontopidis (12.6 PGG) also average double figures. Marcus Giese adds 9.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per outing, while Mitchell Wayand (7.1 PPG) and Dom Black (6.3 PPG) will also factor into the scoring.

LIBERTY LEAGUE PLAYOFF BREAKDOWN: The other quarterfinal matchup in this year's Liberty League Championship is between No. 3 Hobart College and No. 6 Bard at 8 p.m. in Geneva. The winner of the IC/RPI game will take on Skidmore on Saturday, while the victor of Hobart/Bard will battle No. 2 St. Lawrence University on Saturday at 2 p.m. The winners of the semifinal games will tussle at 2 p.m. on Sunday for the Liberty League's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship.