Box Score

TROY, NY (February 17, 2009) – The Vassar men's basketball team, which has been plagued by slow starts the entire season, fell behind by as many as 14 points in the first half against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on Tuesday night and didn't have a defensive answer for the stellar play of RPI's senior forward Sam Simmons (Newburgh, NY/Newburg Free Academy) and fell to the Red Hawks, 86-74 in a key Liberty League game at Robison Gym.

The loss drops Vassar to 9-14, 4-8 in Liberty League play with two games remaining on the schedule. The Brewers will travel to St. Lawrence for an 8:00 p.m. game on Friday night and conclude the regular season with a 4:00 p.m. afternoon game against Clarkson on Saturday. Although mathematically not eliminated from the Liberty League playoffs, the loss drops Vassar two games out of a fourth playoff spot. RPI improves to 13-10, 7-5 and clinches the third spot in the Liberty League playoffs.

Simmons, who shared Liberty League co-Forward of the Week honors with Vassar's senior forward Matt Nunn (Lower Gwynedd, PA/Abington Friends) led a first half charge in which the Red Hawks scored an opponent-best 47 points in the opening 20 minutes – 16 himself on 5 of 6 shooting from the field – and the Brewers found themselves in catch-up mode the entire game. Simmons, who was named the ECAC Upstate Player of the Week, finished with 30 points (on 11 of 13 shooting), the highest total an opposing player has scored against the Brewers this season. He added eight rebounds to his effort.

Trailing 47-37 at halftime, the Brewers were never able to make a significant dent into the Red Hawks lead. A three-pointer from senior guard Brian Butterworth (Hamilton, MA/Hamilton-Wenham) cut the RPI margin to eight points, 53-45, with 15:05 to play. Simmons answered with a layup basket a minute later to build the margin back to double digits and the Red Hawks cruised home. Each time Vassar attempted to cut into the lead, RPI answered with a score.

Butterworth finished with a team-high 17 points and now needs 14 points to reach 1,000 for his career.

Vassar managed just one lead the entire game, coming at the 9:21 mark of the first half when freshman guard Caleb McGraw (Sitka, AK/Mount Edgecombe) canned a jumper for a 21-20 advantage. RPI took complete control of the game from that point, getting opportunistic offense from sophomore forward Mike Brion (Nashua, NH/Bishop Guertin), senior forward Kyle Jung (Goshen, NY/Goshen), junior forward Tim Rupp (Staten Island, NY/Curtis) and Simmons.

McGraw had 15 points for the Brewers and senior guard Lenny Holt (Watertown, MA/Watertown) scored 14 points, his second doubles figures effort in the last three games and his best offensive output since a 15 point performance against Clarkson on January 23. Senior forward Joe Davis (East Amherst, NY/St. Joseph's Institute) got off to a fast start with 10 first half points and finished with 12 for the game.

Beside's Simmons' 30 points, RPI got 12 points from Brion and 11 from junior forward Ricky Philatre (Randolph, MA/Randolph). The Red Hawks shot 52 percent for the game.

RPI held a considerable advantage off the backboard, out-rebounding the Brewers 49-22. Philatre had 11 and Rupp added 7.