POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (January 10, 2017) — The Vassar College men's basketball team (5-8, 1-4 Liberty) maintained composure from tip to buzzer to take down Bard College (2-10, 0-3 Liberty) at the Athletics & Fitness Center on Tuesday, 69-61.
"Really proud of our guys and our commitment today," coach B.J. Dunne said. "They played with great consistency and effort. I thought we showed a lot of composure down the stretch. We played close games in the first semester, and I thought we were well-prepared. We really stuck together the last five minutes. It was a great win for us."
Three Brewers reached double-digit scoring in Alex Seff (17p, 9r), Mason Dyslin (13p, 5r) and Mickey Adams (10p, 3r). Tony Caletti also scored eight points and dished out a game-high six dimes, as 15 of Vassar's 26 field goals were assisted.
"Tony Caletti has been playing great," Dunne said. "He was terrific. He's done a really great job of being able to go downhill and free up open shots for other guys. I thought since we put Steve Palecki in the starting lineup, we got a little tougher, a little more oomph. He made two huge shots for us down the stretch when Bard was making a run. I'm really proud of those two guys, but it was total team effort tonight."
The Brewers shot 52 percent from the floor and 50 percent (8-of-16) from three, while holding their visitors to 40 and 27 percent (7-of-26), respectively. Harry Johnson led the Raptors with 14 points, while Armando Dunn added 13.
Bard jumped out to a 7-5 lead before Vassar's offense lit up, using a 27-10 run to take its largest lead of the game, 32-17, with about five minutes to go. Caletti highlighted the surge with a dime pass to Mattie Mrlik, who hooked the shot to make it a 15-11 ballgame.
Following Vassar's big run, Bard strung together seven straight points to pull within single digits, 32-24, but the Brewers scored eight of the last 10 points of the half to take a 39-28 edge into the break. Dyslin highlighted the mini surge with six points, including a jumperthat was assisted by Caletti.
"I thought we played really well," Caletti said. "We played together. We hit a little rough patch, but we rallied together and fought through adversity. We just played really well and created shots for each other and we knocked them down. That's really important."
The Raptors continued to fight in the second half, scoring the first six points before Browne hit a catch-and-shoot three from Seff to push the Brewer lead back to 10, 42-32. The sides exchanged baskets from there before Bard strung together seven straight points to get as close as one, 61-60, with about four minutes remaining.
"They went on a little run at the end," Caletti said. "They hit a few threes and cut it to three, and we slowed it down on the offense and made sure we made shots. Defensively, we just kept fighting, really crashing the glass, because they're a good offensive rebounding team."
Palecki responded with back-to-back buckets before Caletti delivered the dagger with about two minutes remaining, 68-60. Both sides hit one more from the foul line apiece, as Vassar picked up its first win in conference play.
Vassar returns to the Athletics & Fitness Center this weekend, hosting Clarkson University on Friday, Jan. 13 at 8 p.m. and St. Lawrence University on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 4 p.m.
—VASSAR—