ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - Senior Avni Mustafaj tallied a game-high 20 points for the Vassar College Men's Basketball team as they defeated Bard 73-62 on the road on Friday evening. The Brewers improved to 13-7 overall and 9-4 in conference action while Bard moved to 6-14 and 3-10 in Liberty League contests.

Vassar started the contest on a 12-2 run over the first six minutes as Mustafaj poured in six points while seniors Ethan Ellis and Jack Rothenberg along with junior Case Parsons each added a bucket. Bard countered with a three-pointer from Elliot Harris and a jumper from Greg Farrow to trim the lead down to five with 13:05 left in the half.

The Brewers then rattled off a 13-1 run over the next four minutes on triples from sophomores Luke Adams and Alan Cedeno along with senior Kevin McAuliffe to take a 25-8 lead (9:19). Parsons' three-pointer at the 5:45 mark put Vassar up 33-10, which was the biggest lead of the first half. The Raptors scored the next six points with three coming from Tyler Bruns and the other three tallied by Caleb Moore to trim the advantage down to 17. Following Cedeno's three with 1:55 left in the half, Bard scored the final five points to cut Vassar's lead to 36-21 at the break.

Mustafaj and Rothenberg both finished driving layups early for Vassar to go ahead 40-23 (17:13) before Ayo Akin-Bankole converted a lay-in for Bard. Mustafaj responded with a three-pointer and two free throws for the Brewers to get the lead back up to 17 points with 16:09 remaining. 

Following a layup from Rowan Heinze at 12:26 to keep VC's lead at 50-34, Vassar scored seven straight points to force a Bard timeout with five of them coming from senior Zev Katz and the other two coming on a dunk from freshman Nathan Denham. Vassar's lead was extended to 24 points on a layup from Ellis with 8:32 remaining. 

After a three-pointer from Farrow with 8:03 remaining to trim the lead to 65-44, Parsons scored four consecutive points to push the Vassar advantage to a game-high 25 points with five and a half minutes left. Bard cut the lead down to 11 points with 18 seconds remaining on a three-pointer from Mike Parme but Vassar recorded its ninth conference victory of the season with a 73-62 win.

Mustafaj finished the evening with a game-high 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting and was a perfect 2-for-2 from three-point range. Parsons added nine points and seven rebounds while Cedeno knocked down three triples for nine points. Katz chipped in seven points and three assists while Rothenberg finished an all-around outing with four points, seven boards and three assists.

Farrow led the way for the Raptors with 12 points as Heston Tucker scored 10 points and had a game-high four steals. Azriel Almodovar chipped in seven points and three boards along with Bruns adding six points and three rebounds.

Vassar shot a blistering 53.8-percent overall and was 10-17 from three-point range along with 7-for-8 from the free throw line. Bard finished shooting 41.7-percent and was 38.9-percent from three-point territory. The Raptors converted 20 points off turnovers while the Brewers held the edge in second chance points at 7-3.

VC will return to the court tomorrow afternoon for a 4:00 p.m. contest against RPI in Troy. Bard will continue its homestand against Union tomorrow at 4:00 p.m.