LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. - A solid first half helped the Vassar men's basketball team to a 73-56 win over No. 23 RPI on Friday evening at the UHY Center. This marks the first victory over the Engineers since 2018. The Brewers now move to 11-4 overall with a 7-2 mark in the Liberty League. RPI slips to 11-2 and 5-1 in the conference.
Vassar only trailed once in the first half when RPI took a 4-3 lead, but a wide-open three-pointer by junior Zach Johnson (San Francisco, CA) at 16:58 gave the Brewers the advantage. The Engineers' tied 8-8 after Will Rubin scored a layup, but junior Avni Mustafaj (Yonkers, NY) netted five straight points. After scoring the following four points, Rubin kept RPI close, making it 13-12.
Midway through the half, it became all Vassar. After Johnson scored at 11:10 from a Kevin McAuliffe (Bethesda, MD), the Brewers closed the half on a 24-7 run. McAuliffe drained two triples during that span, while Mustafaj hit another trey at 0:46 to give Vassar a 37-19 lead at the break. The Vassar defense only allowed three RPI players to score and did not allow a single Engineers' three-pointer.
In the second, Ethan Ellis (Silver Spring, MD) sank a three less than a minute to push the lead to 21, but RPI's Patrick Mahoney responded with a three at 18:27 to begin a 7-0 run. Johnson broke the streak after converting a layup, making the score 42-26.
RPI slowly kept chipping away at the Vassar lead, eventually cutting the lead to 13-points following a Mahoney layup at 15:18. Mustafaj kept his hot shooting up, though, scoring the following seven Vassar points to take a 51-31 lead at 13:07. After first-year Alan Cedeno (Cape Coral, FL) scored a three-point play from an and-one, scoring on both sides slowed down.
Shooting fouls allowed the Engineers to work their way back, but time was not on RPI's side. A free throw from Dom Black made it a 15-point game with 1:43 remaining. Sophomore Eli Feay (Fairfield, CT) netted the final Vassar basket off a Willem Nielson (Brooklyn, NY) pass to hold on for the victory.
Mustafaj led the Brewers with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting (.692 percent) with three made triples, five rebounds, and three assists. He now has scored 20 or more points in four consecutive games. Johnson had 17 points and nine rebounds, while first-year Luke Adams (Leawood, KS) recorded a career-high 10 points and seven boards.
Mahoney scored 23 points with seven rebounds for the Engineers, while he had 14 points with three steals.
The Vassar defense held strong and held RPI to 15.4 percent from beyond the arc and also outrebounded the Engineers 38-28.
Vassar returns to face Bard tomorrow at Annandale-on-Hudson at 4 p.m.