Potsdam, NY – Leading from wire-to-wire, the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team toppled first-place Rensselaer on Friday evening, downing the Engineers 60-59 in Liberty League action at Alumni Gymnasium.

The Golden Knights clinched a winning season by improving to 13-11 on the year while they moved to 7-10 in conference games. RPI dropped to 15-9 and 12-5. Clarkson closes out the regular season when the team faces Skidmore College at 4:00 pm on Saturday.

Clarkson scored on its second possession of the game and never trailed in the first half. The two teams were close about five minutes into the game when Avery Eugster hit a 3-pointer to put the score at 11-8 in favor of the Knights, but Clarkson responded with an 11-0 run. Eight of the points came on layups as Clarkson built a 22-8 lead near the midway point of the half. A few moments later, an Aydin Kocak jumper from just inside the arc had the Knights up by 16 with 8:22 remaining. Clarkson would go cold, though, and the Engineers took advantage, cutting the deficit to three after a 3-pointer from Eugster with just under two minutes to go. Clarkson would not relinquish the lead, however, heading into the locker room up by two, 31-29.

In the second half, the Knights built their lead to as many as nine, but the Engineers would not let things get away. Near the midway point, Johnny Angbazo converted inside to cut RPI's deficit to three, only to see Ryan Miles-Ferguson nail a step-back 3-pointer on the next possession to return the margin to six. The two teams went virtually scoreless for a stretch of nearly four minutes, with just an RPI free throw altering the score, but Frankie Rainville hit a 3-pointer with 5:25 to go to put Clarkson up by eight. The margin remained at a two-possession game for nearly the remainder of the contest, with only a pair of 3-pointers from Avery Eugster trimming the gap to one in the final 10 seconds.

Ryan Miles-Ferguson scored 17 points on 7-for-14 shooting to lead the Knights, while Jack Dalgety chipped in 15 points and eight rebounds. Finn Cork also reached double figures with 10 points and finished one rebound shy of a double-double, grabbing nine boards.

Avery Eugster led all scorers with 18 points, scoring six in the waning seconds, while also adding in 11 rebounds. PJ Scalisi added in 10 points and Andrew Deppe had eight points and 10 rebounds for the Engineers.