The Bard College men's basketball team did not recover from a slow start Saturday afternoon, dropping its contest against the RPI Engineers, 38-91 at ECAV Arena.
Max Frei had a team-high 11 points on five field goal attempts, going 7-of-7 from the line. He added four rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a block.
Klaudius Skehel hit two of Bard's four three-pointers in the game, going 2-of-4 from deep while grabbing three rebounds.
Lucas Tovar was a factor with eight points, a team-high two assists, and four rebounds, tying Frei for the team-high.
Angelos Bratakos had a team-high two steals, adding two rebounds and a block.
Dimitrios Zampoukas led the Raptors in blocks, with two, and had two points in 15 minutes.
Seth Dyer contributed a point, a rebound, and a block, while
Bryce Sampah tallied two points, two rebounds, and an assist.
Konstantinos Korfiatis hit his first career three and added a career-high three rebounds.
Azikiwe Cuffy-Scott and
Jalen Umstead rounded out the scoring, with three and two points, respectively. Cuffy-Scott got to the line for six free throws in nine minutes, while Umstead had two rebounds and a steal in 12 minutes.
In the first five minutes of action, RPI stormed out to a 16-2 lead. Frei came out of the timeout with a downhill drive and a three-point play. 1:22 later, an excellent feed from Tovar set up Skehel for a corner three that made it 8-19 and injected some energy into the Raptors. The Engineers had their way over the next few minutes, going on a 14-0 run. Bard generated shots near the rim with aggressive drives, but the Raptors couldn't chip away at the Engineers' advantage. RPI headed into halftime with a 34-point lead, 55-21.
In the early stages of the second half, the Raptors matched the Engineers' scoring output. However, at the 14:59 mark, RPI went on a 7-0 run. After a pair of free throws from Frei got him into double-figures, the Engineers scored 10 of the next 11 points. The RPI defense held Bard without a made field goal for a 12:43 stretch, ending with a layup from Sampah at 5:43. Overall, the Raptors won the block category, 5-3.
Bard's next game is Friday at home versus the St. Lawrence Saints at 7:30 p.m.
