Game Program | Live Stats | Live Video

GAMEDAY (Dec. 30, 2016): For just the third time this season, the Engineers (6-3) play at East Campus Arena and this game is the Liberty League opener against RIT (6-2).

FIVE STRAIGHT: RPI played each of its last five games away from ECAV, going 3-2 in those contests, including 1-2 in true road contests.

TOURNAMENT PLAY: The Engineers played three tournaments in the fall semester, winning the Ed Hockenbury Classic at Norwich, placing second in the Cardinal Classic at Plattsburgh and finishing third in the Tri-State Shootout.

NO HORVAT: Sophomore guard Tom Horvat, a Liberty League All-Rookie Team selection a season ago, missed RPI's last four games of the fall semester due to injury. 

MOST RECENTLY: The Engineers last played on December 9-10 in the Tri-State Shootout, in which they lost to host MCLA (71-67) and defeated Southern Vermont (75-67) ... In the opener, RPI was paced by Andreas Kontopidis' team-high 16 points, while  Brian Hatcher ended with 15 points and seven rebounds ... Asa Barnhill had 12 points for the Engineers, who shot 45% from the floor and committed 14 turnovers ... The next day, Kontopidis collected 33 points on 10 of 19 shooting, including 5 of 10 from beyond the arc ... He was named to the All Tournament team.

WEEKLY HONOR ROLL: Sophomore Andreas Kontopidis was chosen to the Liberty League Weekly Honor Roll after averaging a team-best 24.5 points with 7.5 rebounds in 33.5 minutes per contest ... He made 48.5% (16 of 33) of his shots from the field, including 6 of 15 (40.0%) from behind the three-point line, and 61.1% (11 of 18) from the free throw line ... He also had five assists, a block and a steal.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS: In the three tournaments in which RPI has played, the Engineers have seen Brian Hatcher (Cardinal Classic & Hockenbury Classic), Tom Horvat (Cardinal Classic), Andreas Kontopidis (Tri-State Shootout) and Jonathan Luster (Hockenbury Classic MOP) earn All-Tournament Team recognition.

RIT TO DATE: The Tigers (6-2) are riding a three-game winning streak after suffering a loss at St. John Fisher (85-77) in the Mark's Pizzeria Crosstown Classic ... RIT bounced back to beat Alfred (81-68), Wells (83-66) and SUNY Poly (85-75).

LAST SEASON: RPI was beaten twice by RIT last season, 76-53 in Troy and 65-57 in Rochester.

VETERANS: Rensselaer returns nine student-athletes from last year's team, including seniors Nate Kane and Jonathan Luster ... Senior Brian Hatcher, who missed all of 2015-16 due to injury, also returns to squad ... The others who are back include a junior and six sophomores.

CAPTAINS: RPI will be led by three senior captains in Brian Hatcher, Nate Kane and Jonathan Luster ... In his first three years, Hatcher played all 77 game and averaged 6.1 points and 4.1 rebound ... He had 74 assists, 76 steals and 57 blocks ... Kane is coming off a year in which he led the team in assists with 74 and was third in steals with 27 ... He averaged 5.8 points and 2.6 rebounds ... Luster started all 25 games last season and averaged a team-best 32.8 minutes per contest ... He scored 7.7 points per game with 3.6 rebounds and 62 assists, 18 steals and six blocked shots.

NEWCOMERS: The Engineers have three freshmen on this year's team in Kevin Davis (G/F), Mitchell Wayand (G) and Carter Schneider (F).

GLOBAL REACH: Rensselaer has five different states represented on its roster.

2015-16: RPI finished last season with a 12-13 overall record and a 6-10 mark in the Liberty League ... The Engineers were 5-6 at East Campus Arena and 2-0 on neutral courts.

ALL-ROOKIE TEAM: Rensselaer's Tom Horvat was unanimously named to the Liberty League All-Rookie Team ... He started all 25 games and led the Engineers in scoring, averaging 15.3 points per game, field goals (145), three-pointers (58) and steals (74) ... He was second in assists (73) and minutes per game (32.6) ... Horvat shot 40.4 percent from the field, averaged 3.3 rebounds and registered six blocks.

ALL-ACADEMIC: The 2015-16 Liberty League Winter All-Academic Team included three from RPI men's basketball: Nate Kane (nuclear engineering), Will Lewis (Psychology) and Jonathan Luster (civil engineering) ... Honored student-athletes must have had at least sophomore athletic and academic standing with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.20.