Box Score | RPI Athletics on Instagram

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Will Atkinson scored 16 points and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) men's basketball team took the lead for good with three minutes remaining in the second half on its way to defeating Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) 70-68 on Friday.

RIT shot 47.4 percent from the floor on 27-of-57 shooting. The Tigers went 4-of-10 from beyond the arc, and made an impressive 12-of-14 from the foul line. Will Atkinson was one of three Tigers to score in double figures, finishing with 16 points. Chuck Okehie tallied 10 points and had eight rebounds, while Curtis Nesbit chipped in 12 points.

Patrick Mahoney led Rensselaer with a game-high 20 points to go along with eight rebounds. Tom Horvat tallied 14 points and six assists, while Andreas Kontopidis chipped in 12 points for the Engineers, who shot 40.9 percent from the floor.

Trailing 35-28 at halftime, RIT rallied in the second half, outscoring the Engineers 42-33 in the second stanza. Mahoney gave the Engineers a 41-31 lead at the 17:20 mark of the second half.

The Tigers responded with a 10-2 spurt, cutting the RPI lead to 43-41 on a jumper from Nesbit with 14:22 remaining in regulation.

Kontopidis gave RPI a 51-45 lead on his free throw with 11:28 to play. Once again, RIT responded, tying the game at 58-58 on a layup by Master Rashford with 6:03 remaining. Jaymee Rosser gave RIT its first lead of the game with 2:06 remaining on his old-fashioned 3-point play to give the Tigers a 68-66 lead.

His free throws with 14 seconds remaining gave RIT a 70-66 lead. Horvat cut the lead to 70-68 on his bucket with nine seconds to play, but the Tigers defense held down the stretch to break their six-game losing skid.

RIT, which is now 4-12 overall and 1-8 in the conference, held a 40-33 rebounding edge and tallied 24 points in the paint. RPI drops to 10-7 and 5-5.