ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - They say you can't have a rivalry if one team keeps winning all the time.

What we have here is a rivalry.

After managing to beat Vassar College twice over the course of 26 games from 1988 to 2011, the Bard College men's basketball beat Vassar for the second time in 35 days on Tuesday night, edging the Brewers, 56-55.

Back on Jan. 10, Bard senior Matt Shubert hit two free throws with three seconds left to beat Vassar, 59-57, in the Raptors' Liberty League debut at Vassar. On Tuesday night, believe it or not, Shubert provided the winning points again.

Vassar entered the game on a two-game winning streak, having swept Clarkson and St. Lawrence on the road last weekend. The suffocating defense they used to win those games was on display in the first half Tuesday night. Bard struggled to get good looks, and it took a huge effort to shoot 48 percent from the field in the first half and be down eight (31-23) at halftime.

It was Bard's defense that got them back in the game, as they used a 12-5 run to cut Vassar's lead to 36-35 with 11:49 left in the game. From there the game, which was played with playoff intensity, went back and forth. Nobody had a lead bigger than three over those last 11 minutes, and it was tied four times in the last nine minutes.

A three-pointer by Vassar's Nick Justiz (Old Westbury, NY) forged the last tie of the game with 94 seconds left. After Shubert hit two free throws to give Bard a 54-52 lead, Vassar's Johnny Mrlik (San Francisco, CA) hit a long three-pointer to give the lead back to Vassar with 58 seconds to go.

Things got a little crazy in that last minute.

On Bard's next possession, Shubert hit a 15-foot baseline jumper to give Bard a 56-55 lead with 38 seconds left. On Vassar's next possession, Justiz missed a jumper, but the rebound kicked out to Luka Ladan (Belmont, MA), who fed Mrlik in the paint. His twisting shot was swatted by Shubert, but Justiz grabbed that rebound.

Justiz found Mrlik again down low, but Bard's Alvaro Llanes stole the ball and was immediately fouled with 13 seconds left in the game.

Llanes missed the front end of the ensuing one-and-one opportunity, but Frank Stortini kept that rebound alive, and the ball eventually went out of bounds off of Vassar. The Brewers fouled Llanes again, this time with eight seconds left, and he missed the one-and-one again. Vassar called a timeout down a point with 7.6 seconds left on the clock.

Justiz took the ball up court, then moved to the left side of the lane, where it looked like he was going to try to attempt a running 10-foot jumper. As he brought the ball up to take the shot, Bard's Yonah Greenstein got a hand on the ball, and Justiz's shot harmlessly fell just short of the rim as time expired.

It's the first blocked shot in Greenstein's college career, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Shubert finished with 13 points, four rebounds, three assists and three blocks. Jose Canario added eight points, and four Bard players finished with six points apiece - Siondueh Burnette, Lamar Powell, Frank Stortini - and Llanes, who hit two crucial three-pointers down the stretch in the second half.

The Raptors, who have won back-to-back home games for the first time since December of 2007, host Hobart on Friday night at 8.

Mrlik led Vassar with 17 points and eight rebounds. The Brewers host RIT on Friday night at 8.