GENEVA, N.Y. - To say that the early portion of the Liberty League men's basketball season has been topsy-turvy is quite an understatement.

On Saturday, the Bard College men's basketball team - 0-16 in conference play last season - knocked off defending league champ Hobart, 61-57, in an electrifying upset.

Here are some interesting facts about the game and this season so far:

Hobart led, 3-0, then not again.
It was Bard's first win over Hobart in nine tries.
This is the first time Bard has won three Liberty League games in a season since joining the conference in 2011-12.
All three of Bard's conference wins have come on the road.
Bard has eight wins for the first time since the 2007-08 season.

In other news, dogs and cats are living together and heck has frozen over.

"We were pretty poised, which I'm excited about considering how young we are," Bard Head Coach Adam Turner said. "They made a run - we knew they would make a run - and we never lost belief. I'd still like us to figure out how to keep teams from coming back against us, but we held it together well and beat a good team."

Bard (8-7 overall, 3-3 Liberty League) shot the ball better from the start and its first-half lead grew to nine a couple of times. It helped that Hobart's Connor Rehbaum (Cheektowaga, NY) picked up two quick fouls and sat for all but four minutes of the first half. He had 30 points against RIT on Tuesday and 27 against Vassar on Friday.

The Statesmen (8-6, 3-2) went on a 15-6 run to cut the lead to 29-27, but a three-pointer by Harry Johnson with five seconds left in the half made it 32-27 at the break.

The Raptors scored the first seven points of the second half, eventually pushed the lead to a dozen, then grabbed their biggest lead, 51-37, with 8:41 left in the game. But Hobart started to creep back into it, and before long it was a full-fledged 12-2 run, culminating with a three-pointer by Andrew Hoy (Batavia, NY) that cut Bard's lead to 57-55 with 1:27 left.

Bard missed a three-pointer on its next possession, and Brandon Cunningham swatted a layup attempt by Hoy that would have tied the game with 53 seconds left. Domonique Petty-Fernander (Governors Harbour, Bahamas) grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled on the put-back attempt by DeVahnte Mosley, and Bard's leading scorer had fouled out.

Petty-Fernander missed both foul shots. Siondueh Burnette grabbed the rebound of the second shot, and Bard called time out with the ball and 51 seconds left.

"We were looking to get (Burnette) a post touch, but they didn't allow it, so (Emmanuel Rainey) had the ball up top," Turner recalled. "Hobart had trouble staying in front of Emmanuel all night, which is why we wanted him to have the ball there. He drove into the lane and basically spoon-fed (Burnette) for a layup."

Burnette's layup came with 23 seconds left and made it 59-55. Rehbaum missed a jumper with nine seconds left, and the freshman Rainey hit two free throws with five seconds left to ice it. A layup at the buzzer by Hobart accounted for the final score, 61-57.

Key to the game and the second half in particular was the play of Cunningham, the junior center. He was 10 points, six rebounds and three blocks in the second half alone. He had a put-back dunk and five offensive boards in the last 20 minutes, and finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, his best game as a Raptor.

"Brandon has the potential to have a lot of games like that," Turner said. "Perhaps we haven't seen it because he hasn't been able to get into a flow with the injuries he's had over the years. Against RIT (on Friday), he was having trouble finishing, but he didn't have that problem against Hobart. He was attacking the rim and he basically decided he wasn't going to let anyone stop him tonight. He was a monster."

Mosley led Bard with 18 points, and also grabbed 10 rebounds. Rainey had 10 points, eight in the second half. Rehbaum had 12 points for Hobart.

"DeVahnte was covering Rehbaum and did a great job, and Alex (Fabean-Scotch) was covering (Trey) Blanding," Turner said. "They are most effective when Blanding gets loose, and Alex kept him in check, which was huge.

"In my opinion," Turner continued, "when we play 40 minutes of aggressive defense we can beat a lot of teams. We're basically winning games with defense right now. That's what we're hanging our hat on."

Bard next hosts Clarkson and St. Lawrence on Friday and Saturday, respectively.