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TROY, N.Y. - The Union College men's basketball team put five student-athletes in double figures on its way to a 71-54 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) at East Campus Arena. The Dutchmen improve to 8-7 overall and 4-3 in the Liberty League, while the Engineers, who got a game-high 24 points from Andreas Kontopidis, drop to 10-8 and 4-5.

Union jumped out to a 6-0 lead on a pair of three-pointers, but the Engineers eventually pulled to within two points, 13-11, eight minutes into the first half. An 8-2 run by the visitors put them ahead by eight points, 21-13, four minutes later and Union made it an 11-point lead, 28-17, on a three-point shot by Greg King (Ridgefield, NJ / Saddle River Day School) with five minutes left. The Dutchmen followed by scoring the next four points and went into halftime with a 36-20 advantage. 

Deshon Burgess (Scottdale, GA / Druid Hills), a senior guard, had 10 first half points and King, a junior, had nine with seven rebounds. Kontopidis (Sherborn, MA / Dover-Sherborn) scored 11 points in the first 20 minutes for the Engineers, who connected on only 8 of 27 (29.6%) shot attempts. 

Rensselaer scored the first basket of the second half to get to within 14 points, 36-22, and later to 12 points five minutes in, but could get no closer. Kontopidis made it 46-34 midway through, but Zachary Bouton (Cornwall-On-Hudson, NY / Cornwall) and Burgess countered for a 52-36 lead with under 10 minutes to play.

Wade McNamara (East Lyme, CT / East Lyme) had 16 points and eight rebounds and King registered a double-double of 13 points and 11 boards. Burgess scored 12 points, Kevin Weckworth (Randleman, NC / Bishop McGuinness) had 11 and Bouton finished with 10. Burgess added five assists and two steals.

Kontopidis made 8 of 16 shots, including 5 of 8 three-pointers, in his 24-point effort. He pulled down seven rebounds. Senior Brian Hatcher (Danbury, CT / Immaculate) had eight points and eight rebounds for RPI, which returns to action on Friday at St. Lawrence University (8pm). Union visits Clarkson University on Friday at 8pm.