Annandale-on-Hudson, NY – A 15-2 run midway through the second half turned a tightly contested game into a double-digit margin as the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team suffered an 87-71 defeat at Bard College on Saturday afternoon.

The Golden Knights dropped to 9-10 overall and fell to 5-7 in the Liberty League, while Bard got a much needed win to improve to 10-9 and 5-7, splitting the season series with Clarkson. The Knights will return home for games next weekend, taking on Hobart College and RIT at Alumni Gymnasium.

The Golden Knights came out strong at the start of the first half, building a seven point lead thanks to 3-pointers from Braeden Burns and Lorenzo Rappa and then a Burns right-handed dunk off a pass from Finn Cork at 13:12. Clarkson pushed its early lead to nine when Matthew Parent hit a 3-pointer from the left wing on the break, making it 23-14, but Bard quickly responded with a 3-pointer at the other end. The Raptors slowly got back into the contest with a 7-0 run cutting the margin to one, and then shortly thereafter took the lead off a Rowan Heinze layup with 3:47 remaining. Though Clarkson regained the lead on the next possession off a 3-pointer from Steve DeRegis, Bard put up 10 points in the final 90 seconds to take a two-point lead into the break.

At the start of the second, Bard edged out to a slightly larger lead, but was up by just five after a 3-pointer from DeRegis at 12:51. DeRegis hit another 3-pointer 80 seconds later to have Clarkson trailing by six, but from that point on Bard went on a 15-2 run over the course of less than five minutes while the Knights went just 1-for-6 from the floor with two turnovers in that stretch. The now 19-point advantage for the Raptors was too much to overcome in the final six-plus minutes as the Knights never got closer than 13 for the rest of the game.

Braeden Burns finished with a game-high 19 points, making four 3-pointers, while Steve DeRegis ended up with 11 points. Jack Dalgety was just short of a double-double on nine points and eight rebounds.

Lazaros Panagiotounis closed with 18 points, though he shot just 5-for-15 from the field. Sean Wilcox had 16 points and nine rebounds and Azriel Almodovar produced 15 points and seven assists.