ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Bard College men's basketball team was playing well enough on Friday night to upset Clarkson, a team that has proven to be one of the top four in the Liberty League this winter.

Freshmen Francis Arnold and Siondueh Burnette were playing well, the Raptors had the lead for much of the first half, and senior Matt Shubert was starting to heat up in the second half.

But the Raptors couldn't get a stop.

Clarkson shot 63 percent in the second half and 57 percent for the game in a hard-fought 83-69 victory over Bard.

Box score

Bard (3-12 overall, 1-6 Liberty League) jumped out to a 9-2 lead and still led by six with 12:13 left in the first half. Clarkson (12-4, 5-2) rallied and took a five-point lead into halftime.

In the first 30 seconds of the second half, the lead was pushed to 10, and the Raptors appeared to be in some trouble.

Bard cut a lead that had grown to 11 early in the second half to six four times, the last time with 12:03 remaining, 57-51. But every time Bard got to within that range, Clarkson responded, and most of those responses came in the form of layups off of cuts in the paint.

Clarkson's lead grew again to 13 points with 10 minutes to go, but Bard cut it seven on a layup by Burnette with 6:11 left. The Golden Knights fought off every push Bard made and eventually pulled away as the Raptors got desperate.

The result was never in doubt, but it clearly was the best game Bard had played in a while. Shubert had 17 points, Arnold had 16 points and six assists, and Burnette had 16 points, 10 rebounds and two steals. Freshman Jose Canario was impressive, too, contributing nine points and five rebounds in 12 minutes of action.

The Raptors next host St. Lawrence on Saturday at 4.

Clarkson senior Felix Llanos (Queens, NY), the league's top scorer entering the week, finished with 27 points and eight rebounds. The Golden Knights take on Vassar in Poughkeepsie on Saturday.