ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's basketball team dropped its third straight Liberty League matchup on January 19 inside Ben Light Gymnasium as the Bombers wound up on the wrong end of an 82-66 outcome against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Ithaca is now 9-6 overall and 4-4 in the Liberty League.
It was a slow start offensively for both teams as IC jumped out to a 7-0 just over four minutes into the game.
Cole Wissink and
Logan Wendell scored buckets during the stretch, while
Aidan Holmes hit a 3-pointer. RPI finally got on the board at the 15:06 mark of the half to spark a 6-0 run.
An
Alex Penders 3-pointer with 11:04 on the clock gave the Bombers a 14-9 edge, but it was a back-and-forth battle from there as the Engineers tied the game at 14-14 and a short time later at 16-16.
With 3:19 left,
Evan Cabral pushed IC's lead back out to five points at 24-19, only to watch the Engineers go on an 11-2 run over the next two-plus minutes to capture a 30-26 advantage. Wendell ended the half with three made free throws as he was fouled with 0.5 seconds on the clock to send the Bombers into intermission with a 30-29 deficit.
Both teams went 11-for-29 in the first half, and each made two 3-pointers. The one-point difference came down to the free throw line as RPI went 6-for-10 and Ithaca was 5-for-7.
The Engineers shot the lights out in the second half and ran away from Ithaca, outscoring the Bombers, 52-37, over the final 20 minutes of action. RPI went 16-for-25 from the floor, 7-for-10 from 3-point range and 13-for-16 at the line. The Bombers did shoot 50-percent in the second half but couldn't keep up at the free throw line, going just 3-for-9.
IC did jump back ahead, however, to begin the half as Wendell started things off with a 3-pointer and
Triston Wennersten followed with a jump to give the Bombers a four-point lead in the opening minute to force a timeout by RPI.
Aidan Holmes would add to Ithaca's lead with a three at the 16:22 mark to make it 40-35, but the Engineers went on a 15-4 run over the next four-plus minutes to flip the lead back to their favor at 50-44. Another three by Holmes cut things to a possession at 52-49 with just under 11 minutes remaining, but another RPI run - this time 18-2 over the next minutes - put the game out of reach at 70-51 with 6:09 on the clock.
Ithaca could only trim its deficit down to 12 points for the remainder of the contest as the Engineers came away with the 16-point victory.
Wendell and Holmes each finished with 12 points on the night, while Cabral had nine points. Wennersten,
Andrew Geschickter and
Alex Penders each added seven points. Wissink finished with six points and
Bryce Bleibtrey chipped in five.
The Bombers host Skidmore tomorrow at 4 p.m.
