Box Score

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (February 6, 2010) -- The Vassar men's basketball team held the lead for the bulk of the game against Clarkson University on Saturday afternoon, but the visiting Golden Knights turned on the heat in the second half to notch a 75-60 win over the Brewers at the Athletics & Fitness Center. Clarkson shot just 21 percent from the field in the first stanza, but they looked like a new squad in the second, shooting 53 percent from the field and outscoring Vassar 46-23 to get the win.

With the loss, Vassar drops to 2-18 on the season and 0-9 in the Liberty League. They will take on Union in Schenectady next Friday, February 12 at 8:00 p.m. Clarkson improves its record to 11-9 and 5-5 and will play its final non-league game of the season against Potsdam State this Tuesday, February 9 at 7:00 p.m.

Vassar opened the game with a running floater by freshman guard John Donnelly, and the Brewers sustained the lead for the entire first half, shooting a searing 7 for 11 from behind the arc. Brewer Ethan Shanley found his stroke early and could not miss; the sophomore forward scored all of his career-high 11 points in the first half on perfect 4-4 shooting.

The Brewers put on a first-half shooting clinic for the raucous home crowd, extending their lead to 11 when Caleb McGraw knocked down a three-pointer to make it 32-21 at the three-minute mark. Clarkson stayed in the game largely due to free throw shooting—the Golden Knights were 15 of 18 from the charity stripe in the first half alone and 23 of 28 overall, while Vassar made just 6 of 15 in the entire contest.

Elson Pickering, Clarkson's 6'6” forward, led his squad with nine first-half points, all of which came from free throws. Pickering finished with a game-high 18 points, shooting 4-5 from the field and 10-11 from the line.

At intermission, Vassar led Clarkson 37-29 and maintained a comfortable cushion through the first nine minutes of the second half. But the Golden Knights used their size to build a significant rebounding advantage over the Brewers, out-rebounding the home team 26-9. Donnelly notched a career-high 14 rebounds in the game, but the rest of the squad struggled to pull down boards. As a result, Clarkson tallied 15 second-chance points in the second half compared to Vassar's two.

Clarkson, which had previously only led 1-0 at the 18:58 mark, took its second lead of the game with 7:51 remaining when senior Keith Murray tucked in a lay-up to put his team in front, 53-52. Vassar's shooting went cold from there; the Brewers scored just eight points in the final ten minutes of the game and the Golden Knights were able to take control. Junior guard Rey Jefferson had two three-pointers in the final three minutes of the game, and on the other end the Brewer offense could not keep up.

Vassar benefited from the return of freshman Jon Herzog, who had missed eight games due to injury. The point guard dished out a career-high seven assists in his first outing since January 8. McGraw led Vassar with 16 points, and senior Casey Black added eight.

For Clarkson, senior Brandon Linton contributed 16 points with eight boards and five assists. Jefferson finished with 15 points and sophomore Felix Llanos chipped in 10.