Box Score | RPI Athletics on YouTube

PITTSFORD, N.Y. - Junior Bard Featherston connected on a three-pointer with under 20 seconds left to give the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) a two-point lead and the Engineers held off Lancaster Bible College, 61-60, in the opening round of the St. John Fisher College Tournament. RPI, which has now won five straight games to improve to 7-1, plays in Saturday's championship game against the host Cardinals, who defeated Old Westbury, 80-58. Lancaster Bible falls to 7-3 and plays in the consolation game.

Trailing by a point with just over a minute remaining, RPI had two three-point attempts miss the mark before forcing a turnover. Following a timeout, Featherston took a pass from Tom Horvat and made a trey from the corner - his fourth three of the evening - for a 61-59 lead. Herbie Brown was fouled working to set up a shot and made the first of two free throws with six seconds remaining. Junior Andreas Kontopidis pulled down the rebound for the Engineers and was fouled with four seconds left. The Chargers rebounded the missed free throw on the front-end of a 1-and-1 and rushed down the court for a desperation three-pointer, but missed and the successful put-back came after the final horn. 

Kontopidis led the Engineers with 25 points along with eight rebounds. Horvat scored 15 points and four steals and Featherston finished with 14 points with three rebounds and three assists in 27 minutes. The trio had 11 of RPI's 12 three-pointers as Rensselaer shot 40.0% (22 of 55) from the field, including 12 of 31 (38.7%) from behind the arc.

Brown and Britton Beachy both scored 17 points for Lancaster Bible, which was 0 for 11 from three-point range and 43.8% (21 of 48) overall. Brown added 10 rebounds. 

Both teams enjoyed large leads in the game, but the runs were subsequently matched by the opposition.