TROY, N.Y. – The Rensselaer men's basketball team has earned a bid to the 2010 ECAC Upstate Tournament, which will take place this weekend at SUNY-Brockport. The Engineers, who are the fourth-seed, will take on top-seeded Ithaca on Saturday at 7pm.

Second-seed Brockport will take on third-seed Hobart College on Saturday afternoon at 4pm. The winners of each contest will face-off in the Championship Game on Sunday at 2pm.

Rensselaer last played in the ECAC Tournament in Ithaca on February 28, 2007, where they fell to the Bombers, 80-69. The Engineers last played Brockport on February 7, 1998, falling 87-61. The Engineers split their two meetings with Liberty League rival Hobart, winning in Geneva (66-64 in OT), before dropping their home match-up

Under the direction of 24th-year head coach Mike Griffin, Rensselaer (15-9) is led offensively by senior Tim Rupp (Staten Island, NY/Curtis), who averages 10.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. He is also tops on the club in assists (57) and steals (26). Classmate Ricky Philatre (Randolph, MA/Randolph) is second at 9.8 points per contest, while averaging a team-best 8.0 rebounds per game. Junior Mike Brion (Nashua, NH/Bishop Guertin) rounds out the top three scorers at 6.6 points per contest.

As a team, the Engineers average 72.5 points per game and are allowing a Liberty League-low 63.0 points against per contest. RPI shoots 43.7% from the floor, while holding their opponents to 37.9%. Rensselaer's three-point defense is also tops in the conference, surrendering just 29.2%.

Ithaca (18-8) has four players averaging double-figures in scoring, including Jordan Marcus (18.3 ppg), Phil Barera (16.4 ppg), Chris Cruz-Rivas (13.4 ppg) & Sean Rossi (11.3 ppg). Barera is averaging a double-double, as he also hauls in 10.3 rebounds per contest, while also leading the team with 25 blocks. Rossi has dished out a club-high 209 assists, while Cruz-Rivas is the team's steals leader (41).

The Bombers average 83.7 points per game, while giving up 77.4. They shoot 45.2% from the floor, as a team, while connecting on 72.7% of their free throws. Ithaca went 11-5 in Empire 8 play.

Live stats for all tournament games will be available at http://livestats.prestosports.com/sunybrockport/.