TROY, N.Y. - Senior Andreas Kontopidis scored 20 points and four of his teammates also reached double digits as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's basketball team defeated Clarkson University 78-64 in the regular season finale for both teams. The Engineers extend their winning streak to four games and improve to 15-10 overall and 10-8 in the conference. They are the fifth seed in the upcoming league playoffs and play at fourth seeded Ithaca College on Tuesday. The Golden Knights finish at 6-19 and 5-13.

As a team, Rensselaer shot 57.4% (27 of 47) from the field, led by 7 of 10 from Kontopidis. He also had four rebounds and two assists. Mitchel Wayand scored 15 points on 5 of 7 shooting while pulling down four rebounds. Marcus Giese scored 13 points, Dom Black had 11 and Tom Horvat scored 10 with six assists and three steals for RPI, which has won five of its last six games.

Clarkson was led by Jason Phelps, who scored 17 points with four steals, and Matt Higgins, who had 11 points. The Knights connected on 25 of 59 (42.4%) of its shots in the game.

Rensselaer jumped out to an early lead with an 8-2 run to turn a two-point advantage (8-6) into an eight-point bulge (16-8) six minutes into the contest. Clarkson got to within two points, 24-22 midway through the half and three points, 29-26, with 7:23 remaining, but the Engineers went on a 17-4 spurt for a 16-point lead (46-30) at the break. They had four three pointers, including two from Horvat and one from Black, in the sequence. Black also had a layup as time expired.

RPI was successful on 18 of 27 shots (66.7%) in the first half with 7 of 11 of those coming from behind the arc. Rensselaer had 12 assists in the first 30 minutes compared to just one for Clarkson, which made 40.0% (12 of 30) of its first half shots. 

The Golden Knights battled throughout the second half, but could only get to within 10 points once, 50-40 with 14:42 to play.