Potsdam, N.Y. - Steve DeRegis led all scorers with 20 points while Nate Abernethy collected his third double-double of the season, powering the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team to an 86-64 win over RIT, Saturday afternoon.
With the win Clarkson posts their first back-to-back victories in conference action, moving to 8-9 overall and 3-7 in the Liberty League. The team will return to action next Friday and Saturday, hosting Bard and Vassar for the final league series of the three weekend homestand. RIT falls to 4-13 overall, 1-9 in league play as the Tigers have now dropped their last seven in a row.
RIT led by as much as seven in the early going as Xavier Nelson rattled off seven of the team's first 12 points, opening up a 12-5 lead. Clarkson would chip away quickly as threes from Abernethy and Grayson Wallace tied things up at 16 at the 11:47 mark. Tyson Maxam gave the Knights their first lead of the contest on the very next possession, knocking down a wing trey off a feed from Wallace.
The slim advantage would turn into five for the Knights after Braeden Burns knocked down two free throws to make it 23-18 but a 7-0 answer from Nigel Pierman for the Tigers flipped the score to 25-23 in favor of the visitors. Abernethy and DeRegis provided a sharp response for Clarkson with a 7-0 run split between the two of them over the course of the next minute, reestablishing the advantage for the hosts.
After another 7-2 scoring streak up to the 2:30 mark from the Knights, Burns would give Clarkson their largest lead of the half with a finish at the rim to make it 39-30 and DeRegis would answer a Tiger three with one of his own with 30 seconds remaining to send Clarkson into the half up 42-33.
An 11-2 run from Clarkson early on in the second half put the Knights firmly in the driver's seat as threes from DeRegis and a driving slam from Burns threatened to put the game away early. RIT fashioned several stops and buckets together up to the 12:41 mark when Zac Ditzel cut the deficit to 15 with a finish at the rim but a sudden 17-0 run from the Knights through the next three minutes capped off by a Maxam three to make it 77-45, seemed to make it too big of a hole for the visitors to claw out of.
That would be the largest that the lead would get as RIT managed to offset Clarkson buckets to keep the lead in the 20s for the remainder of the contest. Another triple from Wallace made it 86-57 with 3:22 remaining as both teams would turn to their reserves for the remainder of the contest. A 7-0 scoring line over the final minute and a half from the Tigers cut the lead to 22, producing the 86-64 final.
The Golden Knight bench would provide a huge scoring boost in the win registering 35 points to 23 for RIT. Clarkson also held a slim 34-32 advantage in points in the paint while shooting 53% (29-55) from the field, the second time in two days that the team had shot over 50% overall. The Tigers would be held to marks of 36% (24-67) from the field and 19% (5-26) from three as the team would go just 1-10 in the second half from long range.
Abernethy finished with17 points and 12 boards overall while Burns added 14 points and seven rebounds of his own. Wallace and Maxam both produced 11 point outings off the bench with the pair shooting a combined 5-9 from three. Brody Brown (13 points), Nelson (12 points) and Pierman (11 points) were the only scorers in double-figures for RIT.
