COBLESKILL, N.Y. – Four players scored in double figures and 10 players had at least one bucket as the Union College men's basketball team continued its winning ways with a 93-85 victory over SUNY Cobleskill in non-conference action on Tuesday night.
 
First-year Matthew Garside led the team in scoring for the second straight game, netting a team-best 14 points to go with five assists and four rebounds, while classmate Jack Plesser had a big game in the paint with 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for his first career double-double. Sophomore Aren Cummings also netted 13 points with seven rebounds, while senior Edward Baptiste chipped in 12 points and seven caroms for Union (3-0).
 
Jeremy Rosario led four Fighting Tigers in double figures with a game-high 26 points to go with 10 rebounds, followed by Robert Long with 17 points.
 
Union shot well in the opening 20 minutes of action, hitting 18-of-34 shots (52.9 percent) from the field to take a slim 40-38 lead into the half. The visitors led for much of the opening frame and led by as many as seven after back-to-back layups by first-year Brendan Reid put Union up 22-15 with 12:03 on the clock. The visitors led by seven on several occasions after that after buckets from sophomores Neil Daterao and Christian Dufort, but it remained mostly a two-possession contest.
 
Cobleskill battled back to take a 33-32 lead with 5:41 remaining, but a personal 6-2 run by Plesser and a last-minute layup by Garside helped the visitors take a lead into the locker rooms.
 
Neither team shot the ball well to start the second stanza, with Union hitting two of its first 11 shots and Cobleskill hitting three of its first 11. But Union did an excellent job getting to the free-throw line, sinking 13-of-15 attempts in the first seven minutes to build up an advantage.
 
After the Fighting Tigers came out of the locker rooms with five straight points to regain the lead, the Garnet Chargers responded with a 10-2 run, led by three points each from Plesser and Cummings, to take back the lead at 50-45. The visitors built the lead to nine at 57-48 after a string of freebies from Dufort and senior Connor Cepiel. Following a Cobleskill run that knotted the score at 71 with 6:55 to go, Union responded again with a 12-5 stint – paced by four points each from Garside and classmate Tanner Tedesco – to regain an 83-76 advantage with under three minutes remaining.
 
Cummings and Baptiste came up with clutch baskets to keep it a three-possession game down the stretch, and Union clinched the win by hitting six straight free throws in the final 28 seconds.
 
After a slow start to the half, Union finished the second stanza shooting 15-of-34 from the field, putting the team at 48.5 percent (33 of 68) from the floor for the evening. Cobleskill shot 38.0 percent (27 of 71) from the field on the night. The Garnet Chargers also controlled the paint for much of the evening, posting a 51-36 edge on the glass and outscoring the Fighting Tigers 42-22 in the painted area.
 
Union will take the next week and a half off for finals and Thanksgiving Break before returning to action on Saturday, November 25, when the team hosts the annual Sig Makofski Invitational at Viniar Athletic Center. Union will take on Elms College to finish day one beginning at 4 p.m.