Men's Basketball | 2/28/2022 12:52:00 PM

TROY, N.Y. - Following a 21-win campaign and a regular season Liberty League title, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's basketball team has been selected to participate in the 2022 NCAA Division III Championship Tournament, earning an at-large bid. The Engineers face Nichols College in a first round matchup on Friday at 5:10pm at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. The host Cardinals take on Husson University in another first round contest at 7:40pm with the winners meeting on Saturday at 7:40pm.

Rensselaer, which is 21-5, is the only at-large selection of the four schools as the other three earned automatic bids for winning their conference championships. Nichols, which is 25-3, captured the Commonwealth Coast Conference; Wesleyan, which is 24-3, won the New England Small College Athletic Conference; and Husson, which is 15-9, won the North Atlantic Conference.

RPI, which has not played any of the other three teams this season, is coming off a loss in the Liberty League Tournament at East Campus Arena. It had won six straight games prior to losing on Saturday.

Rensselaer, which is led by eighth-year head coach Mark Gilbride, leads Division III in scoring defense, allowing only 57.5 points per game. The opposition shoots 38.9 percent from the floor and is out-rebounded by 6.7 boards per game. Opponents turn the ball over 14.1 times per contest, in part due to the Engineers averaging 7.7 steals. Offensively, RPI averages 71.2 points per contest.

Mason Memmelaar (Middletown, NY / Pine Bush), a senior forward, is second on the team in scoring (14.5) and first in rebounding (6.7) while averaging 27.9 minutes. He has made 56.3 percent of his shot attempts (143 of 254) with 59 assists, 30 steals and nine blocks. A two-time Liberty League Performer of the Week, he has scored in double figures in 21 games with a season-high 27 once. Memmelaar has two double-doubles of points and rebounds.

Dom Black (Arlington, MA / Arlington), a senior guard who was the conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2019-20, leads the Engineers in minutes (30.8) and steals (48) and ranks second in rebounding average (5.6), assists (71) and blocked shots (10). He averages 10.8 points per game with seven contests of at least 15 points.

A junior forward, Jonny Angbazo (Tenafly, NJ / Tenafly) has scored at least a dozen points in nine of his last 11 games and averages 13.1 over 26 contests. He is third on the team in scoring and rebounding (5.3) with a team-best 26 blocked shots. He also has 45 assists and 22 steals in 29.9 minutes per game.

Senior forward Patrick Mahoney (Ossining, NY / Fordham Prep.) is the leading point producer though his season has concluded due to an injury. A national All-America in 2019-20 (the 2020-21 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic), he averaged 15.1 points over 15 games before being hurt.

RPI has won 20 games-or-more in back-to-back seasons for the first time in school history. The 2019-20 squad won a school-record 24 games (24-5) to break the previous record of 20 victories (1990-91: 20-5; 1995-96: 20-8) on its way to the NCAA Tournament Second Round after earning an at-large berth.

This is the ninth time in school history the Engineers have been invited to the national tournament. The 1995-96 team reached the Sweet 16 - the farthest the program has ever advanced. RPI also qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 1958, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1991 and 2009.

Of Rensselaer's 21 wins in 2021-22, nine have come at home (9-2), 10 were on the road (10-2) and two were on neutral floors (2-1).