Box Score

SCHENECTADY , NY (February 12, 2010) – With the Vassar College men's basketball team out of the Liberty League playoff picture, the next best thing for the Brewers to become was league spoilers. For 35 minutes Friday night against Union College, Vassar played the role perfectly, but Union guard Joey Lokitis had a different ending in mind, and his 22 points – 16 of which came in the second half – propelled the Dutchmen to a 67-57 win at the Viniar Athletic Center. 

The hard-luck Brewers fall to 2-19, 0-10 in the Liberty League, while Union improves to 11-10, 7-4 and sits in a four-way tie for first place in the league. Vassar will face Skidmore at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday while Union hosts Rensselaer also at 4:00 p.m. 

Behind a potent one-two scoring attack from senior guard Casey Black who scored a career-high 20 points and sophomore guard Caleb McGraw, who had 11 of his 17 points in the second half, the Brewers led 50-49 with 4:39 remaining in the game. Lotikis would score 10 of Union's final 18 points, six of those points coming on back-to-back 3-pointers to push Union ahead 61-53 with 1:40 remaining, effectively ending Vassar's gutsy effort. 

After starting the game slowly, without much offensive momentum and an 18 percent field goal percentage, Black single-handedly brought the Brewers not only back into the game, but into a 27-21 lead. Black scored eight straight points that took Vassar from a 16-10 deficit to a 20-18 lead. With help from McGraw and freshman guard Jon Herzog, Vassar went on a 19-5 run in a seven minute span to take a 29-21 lead with 2:17 until halftime. 

However, bolstered by connecting on 11 of 12 first half free throws, Union was able to nick away at the Vassar lead and head into intermission down 29-28. 

Lotikis and forward Drew Goldstein, who scored 10 of his 13 points in the second half, answered the exploits of Black and McGraw and kept the second half extremely tight, with the game knotted at 41-41 and for the last time at 48-48 with 7:05 to play following a pair of free throws by Union's Keven Donohue. Vassar's last lead of the game, 50-48, came when freshman forward John Donnelly connected on two free throws with 5:31 to play. A Lokitis bucket, single free throw and Goldstein dunk put Union ahead 54-50 at the 3:32 mark. Down the stretch, Lotikis canned two three pointers and Goldstein one, which provided Union with breathing room against a Vassar team that could generate only seven points down the stretch. 

Black and McGraw combined for 37 of Vassar's 50 points, with Black shooting 7-of-12 from the field and 4-of-6 from three-point range. Donnelly's nine points all came from the free throw line to go along with a game-high nine rebounds. 

Lokitis and Goldstein had 35 of Union's 67 points and the Dutchmen got a solid 10 points from forward Matt Covucci, who also had eight rebounds, sharing those team-high honors with Keven Donohue.