Hobart College junior Joe Gibbons scored a game-high 15 points to lead the Statesmen to a 61-53 Liberty League men's basketball victory over host Vassar College. Hobart earned its seventh consecutive win, improving to 15-6 overall, 11-1 in the conference. 

Gibbons was 6-of-12 from the floor and made all three of his free throw attempts. Junior Richie Bonney notched his fifth double-double of the season on 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Sophomore Connor Rehbaum narrowly missed a double-double of his own, recording 12 points and nine rebounds. Senior Sean Peer added six points and 10 boards. 

Vassar (7-15, 3-10) got twin 11-point efforts from Curtis Smith and Alex Snyder.

Neither team was particularly sharp offensively—Hobart shot 39.3 percent from the floor and Vassar shot just 37 percent—but the Statesmen earned 10 more trips to the free throw line than the Brewers and made more (14) than Vassar attempted (13). The league leader in rebounding margin (+6.7 rpg) was once again dominant on the glass, owning a 47-30 advantage on the boards.

In the first half, the Brewers owned the largest lead, 24-19 on a 3-pointer by Andrew Adkins at 4:34. A pair of baskets by Bonney and a 3-pointer from sophomore Andrew Hoy sent the Statesmen into halftime, riding a 7-1 scoring run and with a 26-25 lead.

Hobart continued to roll in the second half. After Vassar made the first field goal of the stanza to reclaim the lead, the Statesmen rattled off 13 unanswered points. Gibbons keyed the surge with seven points. The Brewers got within six near the 9:00 mark, but Hobart countered with eight straight points, including six from Rehbaum, to restore its double digit advantage. Down the stretch, Vassar got no closer that the final eight-point margin.

The Statesmen will be back in action on Saturday, Feb. 9, when they visit Bard. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m.