ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Bard College men's basketball team suffered a tough defeat Saturday afternoon, losing to Liberty League rival, Vassar College, 73-67.

The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the Raptors and was the team's first at Stevenson Athletic Center in the 2018.

To open the game, Bard did hold the advantage during the early minutes of the opening half.

However, the Raptors weren't able to put any real separation between themselves and Vassar. With a little over seven minutes gone in the first frame, the Brewers of Vassar College grabbed the lead.

Over the rest of the first half, each side battled. The Raptors stayed right with Vassar, but failed to knock down a single three pointer during the half. As a result, the visitors held a 31-29 lead at the break.

In the second half, Bard continued to work offensively, tying the game on a couple of occasions. But the lead kept evading the Raptors. The hosts stayed within one possession from much of the half, until Vassar nailed back-to-back threes to extend its lead to 52-43 with 11:39 left. 

Two minutes later, Vassar had pushed its lead to 12 points and looked well on its way to victory.

However, Bard wasn't out just yet. With 8:28 remaining in the game, Bard finally nailed its first three pointer of the game to cut the deficit to just seven points at 57-50. 

Four minutes later, the Raptors were down just five points, 62-57, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way.

The loss can really be chalked up to two things: struggling to hit threes and being outrebounded. Those two aspects of the game have been Bard's bread and butter all season long, but on Saturday, Vassar won both categories. 

Justyn Rogers led the way for Bard with 14 points on the day. Alijah Rue chipped in 13 points, while Zack Jacobs added 11 points off the bench for the Raptors.

Emmanuel Oyakhilome finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, which gave him his fifth double-double of the season. 

As for Vassar, Alex Seff (Arlington,VA) led all scorers with 16 points in the effort. Zach Bromfeld (Woodmore, NY) added 15 points and Paul Grinde (Virginia Beach, VA) collected 13 points and 10 rebounds. 

Up next for the Raptors is the first of five straight road games, as they travel to Potsdam to take on Clarkson University on January 26th at 8 p.m. You can follow that game right here.