Troy, NY-- The Sage Colleges' men's basketball team rallied from a 52-38 at the half to beat the host Engineers of RPI in its home opener on Tuesday night as the Gators posted a 94-89 win. Sage improves to 2-1 on the year, while RPI drops to 1-2.
Senior forward Matt Farbotko (Rouses Point, NY/Northeastern Clinton) poured in a career-high 28 points in pacing Sage to the team's second straight win on the season and their second straight win over RPI in the series history. Farbotko bettered his previous career high of 25 against St. Joseph's (LI), in January of 2011. The team's top scorer this season, he also tied Sage's record for most made field goals in a game as he finished with 11 and tied a mark he already holds with Dalton Austin-Michaud who hit the mark twice as well. Farbotko was 11-18 for the night and added five rebounds.
Farbotko now has 890 career points and is poised to become the young Sage men's varsity team's first 1,000 point scorer.
Sage's junior guard Mason Horne (Albany, NY/LaSalle Institute) also finished with a career high as he had a double-double on 23 points and 11 rebounds. He bettered his previous best effort of 21 points last season in a win over Yeshiva University. Sage's senior center Ryan Sager (Stuyvesant, NY/Ichabod Crane) also had a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds.
Freshman forward Melvin Ford (Voorhees, NJ/Eastern Regional) tallied a personal-best as well as he hauled in 11 points and was joined in double-digit scoring by sophomore guard Troy Nwanna (Washington, DC/Mercersburg Academy), who had 12 points.
After trailing 52-38 at the break, Sage crawled back into the action and chipped away at RPI's lead. With 11:56 left, the Engineers held a 15 points lead, but at the 5:13 mark Sager dunked the ball to tie the score at 75-75. The two teams exchanged leads and were knotted twice in the final minutes of play, the last coming at 81-8-1 (3:07). Sage took an 85-81 lead with 1:59 to play as Sager made a pair of free throws after being fouled while collecting a rebound. Down the stretch Sage never saw the action tied and led by six points with 0:49 left to play (90-84).
Sage returns to action on November 27 hosting Bard College in the Kahl Center at 8 p.m. in the team's home opener.
