SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Sophomore Matthew Garside hit his second game-winning three of the season from just inside half-court to lift the Union College men's basketball team to a massive 78-76 victory over Vassar College on Saturday afternoon at Viniar Athletic Center.
The win, the fourth in a row for the Garnet Chargers and the third straight against a top-three team in the conference, moves Union (12-9, 8-6 Liberty League) into a tie for fourth place with Hobart College with four games remaining.
Just over three weeks after his buzzer-beater to defeat St. Lawrence University, Garside did it again to pull out a huge Liberty League win. After Sacha Greenberg put the Brewers ahead 76-75 with 4.2 seconds left, Garside took the inbounds pass from sophomore Brendan Reid and dribbled over the half-court stripe before letting go a shot that banked home to give Union the win.
Garside finished the afternoon with a game- and career-high 23 points, hitting 7-of-12 shots from the field and 6-of-8 from beyond the arc. Classmate Tanner Tedesco added 22 points and junior Christian Dufort scored 13 with nine rebounds, while sophomore Brendan Reid grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, the most for a Union player since Greg King '18 on January 27, 2018 against Ithaca College.
Shea Fitzgerald matched Garside for the game-high with 23 points to lead three players in double figures for Vassar (14-7, 10-4 Liberty League).
Garside's shot was a fitting end to a game that saw neither side lead by more than two possessions for the entirety of the second half. Union started the second stanza by hitting seven of its first nine shots to turn a 39-31 deficit into a 49-45 lead with 15:18 on the clock after a Plesser layup finished off an 18-6 run. The home team led by as many as six on three occasions after that, the last coming after a Tedesco layup put Union up 65-59 with 6:21 left.
The Garnet Chargers did not trail again until a Kreekor Karageuzian three-point play put the Brewers up 69-68, but Dufort responded with a three on the next possession to put Union back up. After Tedesco hit two clutch free throws to make the score 75-73 with 22 seconds left, Vassar got a three-pointer by Greenberg with 4.2 seconds remaining tro retake the lead, but that left just enough time for Garside to work his late-game magic yet again.
Union shot better from beyond the arc (9 of 21) than it did inside it (18 of 45) on the afternoon, but also shot 83.3 percent (15 of 18) from the free throw line and grabbed 13 offensive rebounds to pull out the win. The Garnet Chargers also overcame Vassar's 51.6 percent (32 of 62) shooting from the field, helped by 21 fast-break points.
Union will ride its four-game winning streak into the North Country, beginning another key conference weekend with a Friday night matchup with Clarkson University beginning at 7:30 p.m.