TROY, N.Y. - The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's basketball team withstood a comeback attempt by Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in a defensive battle and the Engineers defeated the Tigers 43-40 in a critical Liberty League contest at East Campus Arena.

RPI improves to 12-12 overall and 9-8 in the conference, which moves them into fourth place in the league standings - the final position to host a post-season game. Rensselaer retains fourth with a win in the regular season finale against William Smith College on Saturday or a loss by St. Lawrence University at Union College. The Saints are also 9-8 in the conference, but RPI holds the tiebreaker based on two head-to-head wins. Regardless of Saturday's outcomes, the two teams will meet on Tuesday in the first round. RIT falls to 7-17 and 5-12. The Tigers conclude their season on Saturday at Bard College. All games begin at 2pm.

After coming back from a 14 point first half deficit (22-8) to eventually pull to within a point with just over a minute to play, RIT had two chances to grab the lead, which would have been its first of the contest. Trailing 41-40 following one made free throw from Emma Waite, the Tigers' Kaleesha Joseph blocked a layup attempt by Hannah McGrath with 57 seconds remaining. Joseph's attempt under the basket on the other end was missed and pulled down by Rensselaer's Brielle Sharry.

The Engineers ran the clock down and took a timeout with 19.5 seconds left (13 on the shot clock) and eventually rotated the ball to Nicole DaPra for an open three point attempt in the left corner. The shot was off, Joseph got the rebound, and an immediate timeout by the Tigers led to an inbound in front of their bench with 6.5 seconds remaining. The ball was thrown to Joseph, who drove the right side of the lane and put up a contested shot from the right side near the hoop. The ball hit the bottom of the rim and ended up out of bounds to the Tigers. 

A technical foul on the RIT bench following the play led to a pair of free throws and the ball to RPI. DaPra made them both and the Engineers ran out the clock after a successful inbounds pass. 

Rensselaer held a 16-8 lead after the first quarter and a 24-15 advantage at halftime after once being ahead 22-8. The Tigers pulled to within one possession on multiple occasions in the second half but could not overcome a night of shooting just 27.1 percent from the floor (16 of 59), including 9.1 percent (1 of 11) from three point range. They made only 7 of 22 (31.8%) of their free throws.

RPI also struggled from the floor, going 14 of 61 (23.0%) overall and 3 of 24 (12.4%) from behind the arc. The Engineers connected on 12 of 20 (60%) of their shots from the foul line.

DaPra led all scorers with 10 points while Heather Converse corralled 14 rebounds. Joseph had eight points and nine boards on the other end.