ITHACA, N.Y. – It was a tough end to Senior Day as the Ithaca College men's basketball team fell just short of besting the No. 1 seed in the Liberty League in the RPI Engineers with a final score of 54-51 inside Ben Light Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon. Ithaca falls to 12-8 overall with a 9-4 Liberty League record while RPI improves to 17-4 and 11-3 in conference play.

RPI has the lowest point-per-game defense in the country for all three divisions of college basketball. That defensive prowess was definitely evident in today's contest as the Engineers held the Bombers to just 51 points on 18-of-51 shooting from the floor and 6-for-25 from 3-point range.

Despite the suffocating defense from the Engineers, the Bombers got going early and often as Aidan Holmes and Logan Wendell propelled Ithaca to a 12-9 lead. RPI eventually started hitting some shots and ended the half on tear up by 10 points with a 36-26 lead over the Bombers.

RPI was able to maintain their lead for the majority of the second half, going up by as many as 15 points, but Aidan Holmes hit a 3-pointer to send Ben Light into a frenzy to bring the Bombers to within three with just over seven minutes remaining in the game, 50-47. It was a tough go for both teams from there, as there were just a combined eight points the rest of the way.

IC missed its last nine shots of the contest and went scoreless for the final 3:39 of the game, while RPI went scoreless for the final 4:19 of the game. RPI scored just 18 points in the second half.

Logan Wendell led the Bombers with 12 points, while Jaylon O'Neal added 11 points. Holmes and Evan Cabral each tallied eight points.

Ithaca's next game will be next Tuesday, February 11th at 7:30 pm in Ben Light Gymnasium.