Men's Basketball | 12/29/2014 8:29:00 PM

Box Score Box Score | Tournament Page

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Junior Chase Almond scored 20 points and pulled down 17 rebounds to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's basketball team to a 66-62 win over Haverford College in the Land of Magic Classic. The Engineers improve 3-6 heading into the Liberty League portion of their schedule. The Fords fall to 3-7.

Almond was nearly unstoppable for RPI, connecting on 10 of 13 shots from the field, while grabbing 15 defensive rebounds to lead the way. Jonathan Luster added 14 points and Josh Dugas scored 13 in the win. Matt Sherman led Haverford with 19 points.

The Fords held a 35-30 lead at halftime but the Engineers quickly erased that in the second half by starting the frame on a 16-0 run over the first six minutes for a 46-35 bulge. Five different players scored in that stretch, led by Almond's six points. Haverford pulled to within four points, 50-46, six minutes later, but a three-pointer by Dugas made it a seven-point game with 7:39 to play. Haverford continued to battle, getting the score within two points with under a minute to play, but Dugas and Luster made the free throws, four and six of them, respectively, for the win.

Rensselaer returns to the Capital Region for the first Liberty League games of the season when they host St. Lawrence and RIT on Friday (8pm) and Saturday (4pm) at East Campus Arena.