POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (January 27, 2014) – The Vassar College men's basketball team will travel to face the Engineers of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute tomorrow evening at the East Campus Arena in Troy, NY.

Game Details
Opponent: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (6-10, 4-3 Liberty League)
Site: Troy, NY
Facility: East Campus Arena – Performance Gymnasium (1,200)
Date: January 28, 2014
Time: 8:00 pm
Live Stats
Live Video

What to Look For
The Brewers (13-3, 5-2) are coming off a big week that featured three Liberty League wins. Vassar defeated Bard College 66-59 on Tuesday, Clarkson University 69-51 on Friday and St. Lawrence University 73-65 on Saturday. Johnny Mrlik (San Francisco, CA/St. Ignatius College Preparatory) averaged 18.3 points per game while pulling in five rebounds a night and dishing out 2.3 assists a showing. Alex Snyder (Rutland, VT/Rutland) managed double-digit scoring against Clarkson (17) and St. Lawrence (16) as well.

Mrlik scored 22.2 percent of his season free throws this past week with an impressive 13-for-14 showing against Bard. He is 72-of-81 on the season (88.9 percent). Luka Ladan (Belmont, MA/Belmont) scored a career-high 25 tallies against Bard while adding another 14 points spread out between the weekend games. He brought down four rebounds per game while also having a standout performance from the line, totaling 9-of-13 (69.2 percent).

The Brewers average 69.9 percent scoring while still holding their opponents to a low of 62.6 a game. Vassar's shooting average has gone up with the help of two back-to-back 70-plus second half percentages (Clarkson, 70.0 percent/St. Lawrence, 70.83 percent) and a 61.1 percent second half against Bard. The Brewers' field goal percentage this season is 47.2 (399-845).

A Look at the Engineers
The Engineers are on a two-game losing streak with losses to Rochester Institute of Technology 109-103 and Hobart College 113-77. In the loss to Hobart, the Statesmen's passing game spelled doom for the host RPI team. They managed 36 helpers on their 44 made field goals including eight three-pointers. Hobart was also 17-of-23 from the charity line as they were fouled 16 times. The Engineers were led by the efforts of Nick Keefe (13 points) and Josh Dugas (11 points). They were also out-rebounded by Hobart 49-33, having missed 50 of their shots with only 14 offensive boards.

RPI leads the League in points per game with 91.4. With such a high scoring average, it is surprising to see that on the defensive side of play, the Engineers are suffering from a 4.9 points per game deficit, allowing 96.3 a show. They have only had three games with their opponents scoring less than 80 points. All three of those games were wins for the Engineers and one was a season-high 113 points scored. Reggie Colas leads the way with 11.1 tallies a night. He's followed by Keefe and Tyler Gendron with 10.5 and 10.3 a contest, respectively.

All 18 players who have stepped on the court this year have scored this year and 14 of them have played in all 16 games.

Against RPI All-Time
RPI leads the series 23-6 with a current win streak of 10 in the past five years. The run ties the series record, which started with the first meeting of the two teams on December 2, 1989. Vassar lost that game in Troy, 87-81. The Brewers' last win came on February 19, 2008 with an 80-71 home stand, capping off their best series run of four games.

Shoot! No Seriously, We'll Shoot!
The Brewers lead the League with a 47.2 percent field goal percentage. Vassar has made an average of 10.3 three-pointers per game. They have shot 39.3 percent, which is highest three-point shooting percentage in the League.

Oh! And We'll Shoot Free Throws If You Insist
Vassar has shot 70.7 percent from the free throw line. Mrlik leads the way with an average of 88.9 shooting average. He has made 72 of Vassar's 203 attempts at the line (35.5 percent). He's followed by Ladan's 42 and Snyder's 22 charity shots.

You Can Shoot…We'll Just Grab It When You Miss
The Brewers have allowed their opposites to grab the lease amount of rebounds per game out of everyone in the Liberty League (32.0 per game). RPI is giving away 51.6 per game. The Brewers rank second in the League with 28.9 defensive boards a night. Snyder is pulling in a team-high and League second 8.3 rebounds behind Hobart's Richie Bonney (who has played RPI twice, hauling in 17 and 11 in the meetings).

Up Next
The Brewers get to catch their breaths with a week off until Tuesday, February 4 against Hudson Valley local, Bard College at 8:00 pm in Annadale-on-Hudson, NY.