TROY, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team squared off with RPI for the second time in five days as IC traveled to Try on Saturday all fell to the Engineers, 73-71, on a layup with less than two seconds remaining in the game at the East Campus Arena. With the setback, Ithaca is now 11-7 on the season and 7-4 in the Liberty League, while RPI improves to 15-2 on the year and 9-1 in league play.
The Bombers led for the entire first half (18:42) and for more than 14 minutes in the second half, but it wasn't enough as the Engineers clawed back into the contest in the waning minutes of the second half and took over the lead for good with 2:30 left. IC tied the game up at 71-71, as
Liam Spellman drilled a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left, but RPI would prevail on a layup with just 1.8 seconds on the clock to earn the season sweep of the Bombers.
It was all Bombers in the first half as IC led by as many as 14 points, 27-13, over the opening 20 minutes and went 7-for-12 (58.3-percent) from 3-point range. Ithaca utilized 15 RPI turnovers to score 13 points and went into intermission with a 38-30 lead.
In the second half, RPI opened with a 10-0 run to flip its eight-point deficit into a two-point lead in less than two minutes. After the 40-38 lead by the Engineers, IC answered with seven straight points as
Andrew Geschickter scored five points during that run to put the Bombers back on top.
That would be the story for the final 15:43 of the contest as the league foes battled to take control of the contest. IC would eventually lead by six points at 56-50 with 9:37 remaining, but the Engineers deadlocked the game at 60-60 just over four minutes later. From there, neither team led by more than three points and RPI had just enough left in the tank to come away with the victory.
Luke Radovich led all scorers with 27 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range with five steals and three rebounds.
Spellman and
Skylar Sinon each tallied 12 points in the loss. Spellman pulled down six rebounds and went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc, while Sinon handed out three assists with two steals and was 5-of-9 from the field.
Logan Wendell chipped in seven points.
The Bombers are off until next weekend as they head to Union College and Skidmore College on February 4-5.
