PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The Medaille College men's basketball team came up short in their game against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on day two of the Woodcliff Hotel & Spa Tournament. The Mavericks lost, 67-81.

The Mavs came out firing with a made layup by Rodney Graves (Woodbridge, VA, Colgan) to take an early lead. Nick Carmichael (Ontario, NY, Wayne) grabbed a defensive rebound which led to a made three-pointer by Bryce Smith (College Station, TX, A&M; Consolidated) to extend the lead. Travis Sanders (Cleveland, OH, Euclid) was able to hit a three-pointer off of a RPI turnover, and a made layup to keep Medaille rolling. RPI answered the pressure and went on a scoring run to go up 26-18 with 6:21 left in the first half. Kendall McGill (Largo, MD, Largo) stopped the bleeding with two made free-throws and a three-pointer. McGill continued to fight with a defensive rebound and a made three-pointer off of the fast-break. Dante Moultrie (Buffalo, NY, North Tonawanda) hit a jumper beyond the arc to cap off a strong offensive surge from the Mavs. Medaille went into the half tied at 30.

The second half started off like the first with Graves scoring early to give Medaille a lead. Both teams traded the first ten points as they were tied at 40 with a little over 13 minutes left to play. RPI slowly started to run away with the score despite a strong effort by the Mavs to maintain the course. The Mavericks were withing range only down 58-66 before RPI went up by double-digits with five minutes left in the half. RPI kept their lead until the final buzzer shooting 51.85% from the field in the second half. The Mavericks scored 37 points to RPI's 51 in the 67-81 loss.

The Mavs shot 21-49 from the field, 7-17 in three-pointers, and went an impressive 18-23 at the free-throw line.

Game leaders for the Mavericks were McGill with 22 points going 6-13, with seven rebounds and two steals, Graves with 12 points going 4-11, with eight rebounds and two assists. Moultrie and Sanders each added seven points.

The Mavs will head to Brockport on Monday, January 3 for their 3:00 p.m. non-conference game.