COBLESKILL, N.Y. - The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's basketball outscored SUNY Cobleskill by 10 points in both halves and the Engineers posted their first victory of the season, 80-60 over the Fighting Tigers. The game was the third for RPI and the fourth for Cobleskill, which is now 3-1.

Sophomore Mason Memmelaar led a balanced attack for Rensselaer, which held a 33-23 lead at halftime. He scored 21 points with seven rebounds, an assist and two steals. Junior Patrick Mahoney added 17 points and a team-high eight rebounds and Mitchel Wayand scored 11 points. 

With the scored tied at 21-21 with 4:42 remaining in the first half RPI flexed its power, repeatedly attacking the paint to go on a 12-to-2 run to close out the half behind the play of Mahoney, who scored four points and passed out an assist during the run.

During the second half, the Fighting Tigers cut the lead to six points with 11:40 remaining in regulation after trailing by as many as 13 points, when junior Devin Boyle connected from long range to make it 51-45 Engineers.

RPI responded by using its inside muscle to repeatedly attack the Cobleskill interior defense behind Mahoney and Memmelaar.

Cobleskill was led by senior guard Daniel Owens, who scored a team-high of 19 points to go with three rebounds, and by senior forward Antwan Claxton, who posted a double-double of10 points and 11 rebounds. 

The Fighting Tigers will be in action again on Tuesday November 19, when they host Bryant & Stratton College in non-conference action beginning at 7:00 p.m. at the Iorio Gymnasium.

RPI returns to the hardwood on Friday when it hosts the Blue Knights of Mount Saint Mary College at ECAV Arena with tip-off scheduled for 6pm.