Potsdam, N.Y. - The Clarkson University Men's Basketball team was unable to overcome a cold shooting night, falling 70-51 to Vassar College, Saturday afternoon at Alumni Gymnasium. 

Clarkson moves to 9-10 overall, 4-8 in league play and will travel south to take on RIT and Ithaca, next Friday and Saturday, in two important Liberty League matchups. Vassar improves to 13-5 overall while jumping to 9-2 in the league putting them in third place overall in the conference standings after this weekend's games. 

Both teams would struggle scoring-wise from the start as two Lorenzo Rappa free throws and a Braeden Burns layup made it 4-4 headed into the first media timeout. Vassar would come out of the timeout and rattle off a 9-0 run over the next two minutes to take a solid 13-4 lead with 13:24 left in the half. Tyson Maxam would then break a four minute drought for the Knights with a pull-up jumper followed by a layup from Nate Abernethy to make it 15-8 less than two minutes later. 

Vassar would continue to keep their lead intact behind strong offensive rebounding and interior offensive play answering a Maxam layup to cut the deficit to six with a layup and two free throws to make it 21-11 at the 8:31 mark. Clarkson would start the contest going 0-9 from behind the arc, a streak that was finally broken by Grayson Wallace with 8:05 on the clock to bring the lead back down to seven. The Brewers then scored the next six points as another four minute stretch without a bucket was broken by Aydin Kocak from three point land to make it 27-17 in favor of the visitors. A three-point advantage over the final three minutes of the half provided Vassar with a 36-23 lead at the halftime interval. 

Both teams would make just four threes between the two of them in the first half with Clarkson going 2-18 and Vassar shooting 2-14. Vassar would finish the half in a much better position with a 43% (15-35) field goal percentage thanks to high quality interior looks while the Knights managed to shoot just 23% (7-31) from the field overall. 

Parker Neuenhaus got the Brewers on the board early on in the second with a wing three before three more looks from the visitors saw the lead jump to 45-25 less than four minutes in. Any Clarkson baskets were continuously answered by Vassar who would go up by 21 and then 25 following free throws and a mid range jumper from Shea Fitzgerald at the 10:57 mark. 

A 6-0 run for the Knights from Burns and Maxam in less than a minute made it 57-38, the closest that the score would come until the 6:44 mark when Maxam connected on a three off a Matt Toscano feed, cutting the deficit to 64-45. Burns then connected on two free throws at the 3:19 mark, breaking a three minute plus scoreless stretch for both teams but a 6-0 counter in less than a minute for the visitors meant the lead would inflate to 70-47 with just under two minutes left in proceedings. Lorenzo Rappa and James Dingman would both tally two points over the final 90 seconds with the 70-51 score on the board standing as the final. 

Clarkson would finish the afternoon going 16-64 (25%) from the field and 5-39 (13%) from three, both season-lows while Vassar finished with marks of 44% (27-62) and 44% (5-19) from the field and three-point range. The Brewers held a stark advantage in rebounds (54-28) grabbing 18 offensive rebounds while receiving 26 points off the bench. The Knights would finish with just eight turnovers as a team while scoring 16 points off Brewer turnovers. 

Maxam finished with a team-high 12 points off the bench for the Golden Knights while Lorenzo Rappa and Abernethy both added 10 apiece. Burns grabbed six boards to go along with nine points. Neuenhaus led Vassar with a game-best 16 points while tallying six rebounds. Fitzgerald would contribute 11 points while Gyasi Zinn pulled down 12 rebounds, including four on the offensive end.