POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – On Saturday afternoon, the Vassar College men's basketball team concluded its 2018-19 season by welcoming Ithaca to the Athletic & Fitness Center.  Vassar honored its five seniors—Mason Dyslin (Yorktown Heights, NY), Chris Gallivan (East Walpole, MA), Paul Grinde (Virginia Beach, VA), Steve Palecki (Southborough, MA) and Alex Seff (Arlington, VA)—before the contest, and the quintet started the game together.  The Brewers (11-14, 7-11 Liberty) were unable to send them out with a win, however, as the Bombers (15-10, 11-7 Liberty) posted an 89-62 victory.
 
Vassar stormed out of the gate, building a 17-9 lead not even five minutes into the contest.  All 17 points during the rally came from the seniors (Dyslin-10, Grinde-5, Palecki-2).  Ithaca battled back, though, going ahead 26-24 on Zach Warech's three-pointer midway through the period.
 
After a Grinde free throw put the Brewers back in front, 29-28, at the 7:28 mark, the Bombers went on a 12-4 spurt to open up a seven-point cushion, 40-33.  Vassar used a Lance Tebay (Virginia Beach, VA) trey and a Grinde layup to cut its deficit to two, 40-38, with 2:05 left in the half, but Ithaca outscored Vassar 10-2 over that span to extend its margin to 10 points, 50-40, at the break.
 
The Bombers then opened the second half on a 17-3 run to increase their advantage to 24 points, 67-43.  Vassar responded by scoring seven of the next nine points, cutting its deficit to 69-50 on Dyslin's layup with 11:45 remaining.  The Brewers would get no closer, though.  Ithaca's lead reached a game-high 28 points at 89-61 before Jonah Frere-Holmes (New York, NY) capped the scoring with a free throw, his first career point.
 
Grinde just missed a double-double in his final collegiate game, tallying 16 points and nine rebounds.  Dyslin ended up with 12 points and six boards, while Palecki grabbed seven rebounds.  Zach Bromfeld (Woodmere, NY) and Tebay each recorded 10 points, and Seff had eight points to go along with four boards and two assists.  Vassar outrebounded Ithaca 43-42 and shot 36.8 percent (21-of-57) from the floor.  However, the Brewers went just 4-for-21 (19 percent) from long range and 16-for-26 (61.5 percent) at the free throw line.
 
Five Bombers scored in double figures, led by Peter Ezema's 18 points.  He also pulled down nine rebounds.  Skylar Sinon finished with 17 points, five boards and three assists, while Sebastian Alderete contributed 11 points and six rebounds.  Bryan Karl tallied 10 points off the bench, with Warech adding 10 points and four assists.  Ithaca shot 47.1 percent (33-of-70) from the field, 45.8 percent (11-of-24) from three-point land, and 63.2 percent (12-of-19) at the charity stripe.
 
Seff and Grinde are the first 1,000-point teammates to graduate together since Lawrence Avitable and Brian Butterworth in 2009.  Seff's 1,114 career points put him 12^th on Vassar's all-time scoring list, while Grinde ranks sixth on the all-time rebounding list with 569 boards.  He's one of just four players in program history with 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.