Potsdam, N.Y. - Balanced scoring across the board, capped off by 22 points from Braeden Burns, led the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team to a 98-67 win over Bard College, Friday evening at Alumni Gymnasium. 

With the win Clarkson draws even at 9-9 overall, and moves to 4-7 in the Liberty League. The team returns to campus, tomorrow, January 31st, to host Vassar College at 4 p.m. Bard drops to 1-17 overall while moving to 0-11 in conference play. 

Back and forth scoring to open the contest resulted in an 8-5 lead for the Raptors prior to the first media timeout with four makes inside the arc for the visitors providing the early advantage. A Lorenzo Rappa three to make it 8-8 would mark the final time that Clarkson would trail through the contest as two free throws from Burns made it 10-8 at the 14:14 mark. Bryce Sampah countered with a strong finish at the rim to make it 10-10 but four more trips to the charity stripe and a Tyson Maxam three saw the lead grow to four in favor of the Golden Knights. 

A sharp 9-0 run from Clarkson from the 9:42 to the 8:04 marks with threes from Steve DeRegis, Aydin Kocak and Ben Rappa quickly put Clarkson up 26-15. That lead would then grow to 32-17 following a 2-2 set of free throws from Nate Abernethy to mark the largest Golden Knight advantage up to that point. As time ticked down towards the halftime whistle, Lucas Tovar brought the Raptors back to within 11 but another 8-2 run up to the 1:26 mark saw the lead balloon to 42-25 following another Maxam trey. A three and free throw from Bard canceled out a Burns long-range attempt over the final minute as Clarkson would lead 45-29 at the break. 

An 11-2 run to start the second half saw the lead expand to 56-31 in favor of Clarkson just over three minutes in with a dunk from Burns providing the exclamation mark on the streak. Both teams would then find their long-range shooting touch combining for eight threes up to the 10:36 mark with Clarkson still firmly in command, up 73-47. 

With a lead in the mid-20s for most of the second half, reserves for the Golden Knights played an important role down the stretch as Ben Bianco connected on two threes over the final seven minutes, with the second one making it 88-58 for the Knights. Bobby Piddock would notch his first collegiate three off a feed from Ben Rappa with just over two minutes remaining while James Dingman and Ben Rappa combined to give Clarkson their largest lead of the game at 98-65 with 1:27 left in the contest. Two late free throws from Bard provided the final points of the evening and the 98-67 final. 

Clarkson held a large advantage in bench points, with 45 to just 18 for Bard. The Knights would also finish with a 35-13 lead in points off turnovers while shooting 55% (18-33) from three and 56% (32-57) from the field overall. The Raptors managed to go 44% (24-54) from the field while shooting 33% (9-27) from three. 

Abernethy grabbed seven boards to go along with 10 points for Clarkson who also received double-digit outings from Grayson Wallace (11 points) and Piddock (13 points). Matt Toscano dished out six assists off the bench while snagging five rebounds. Samuel Gibbs led the Raptors with 19 points, Lucas Tovar added 13 in the effort.