ITHACA, N.Y. - Playing on the road for the fifth consecutive game, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's basketball team could not overcome a long scoreless drought in the first half and the Engineers lost to Ithaca College 63-52 in a Liberty League game at Ben Light Gymnasium. The Bombers improve their overall record to 12-6 and are now 8-3 in the conference, while RPI drops to 13-6 and 7-5.

Rensselaer held a 6-5 lead on a Dom Black layup at 17:46 of the first half but Ithaca went on an 18-0 run over the next seven minutes to take a 23-6 edge midway through the first. The Bombers had four three pointers in the sequence, two from Luka Radovich, and five different players made baskets.

Black ended the RPI drought with a trey of his own at the 10:19 mark before cutting the deficit to 12 points, 23-11, with a pair of free throws. 

After the teams traded baskets, Brian Kelly hit from behind the arc to get the Engineers to within eight points, 25-17, but Zach Werech countered with a three on the other end. Ithaca built the lead back to 15 points, 32-17 with 4:40 to play, but RPI cut it to a seven point margin, 34-27, on a Black three pointer with 1:18 left and that is how the half ended. 

A Kelly three and a Jonny Angbazo layup helped the Engineers cut the deficit to six points, 38-32, with 16:30 to go in the second half and they eventually cut it to five on a Chuck Clemons three six minutes later (48-43). The Bombers scored five in a row and eight of the next 11 points for a double digit margin, 56-46 with 4:49 to play. The difference remained at least three possessions for the remainder of the contest.

Kelly and Black both had 15 points with Kelly pulling down nine rebounds and Black grabbing seven. Radovich had a game-high 17 points on the other end, while two others from Ithaca scored 11 points apiece.