Box Score GENEVA, N.Y.—The Hobart College basketball team opened its Liberty League slate with a 74-63 victory over Hamilton College in Bristol Gym tonight. The win snaps a five-game slide by the Statesmen, who improve to 4-5 overall (1-0 Liberty), while the Continentals fall to 5-5, 0-1.

Hamilton jumped out to a 15-5 lead, but a Hobart timeout allowed the Statesmen to regroup and launch a 14-2 run. Senior forward Joe Flacke (Schenectady/Schenectady, N.Y.) keyed the comeback with seven of his team-high 20 points. The remainder of the first half was a back and forth affair that fittingly ended in a 28-28 stalemate.

Hobart grabbed the lead for good midway through the second half, 43-42, on a jumper of by junior guard Adam Frederic (Holy Cross/Flushing, N.Y.). He finished the evening with an exceptional all-around effort, scoring 19 points, including 7-of-7 from the line, and limiting the effectiveness of the Continentals’ leading scorer, sophomore guard Nick Jones (St. John’s/Washington, D.C.), who finished nearly nine points below his season average (15.9) with just seven points.

Frederic’s basket was part of a 10-2 run that gave the Statesmen a 50-44 lead with 8:19 remaining. More important than Hobart’s scoring was the team’s play at the other end of the floor. The Statesmen have struggled defensively, allowing a league-high 78.6 ppg against a high-powered non-conference schedule, but Hobart held Hamilton without a field goal for more than five minutes (13:08 to 7:43) and 39.3 percent from the floor for the game.

The Continentals twice pulled within one in the final three minutes on baskets by sophomore forward Tsakani Ngobeni (St. Anne’s-Belfield School/Soweto, South Africa), who scored a game-high 29 points, the last at the 2:39 mark. Flacke answered Ngobeni with a layup of his own at the other end of the floor, blocked an Ngobeni shot, and converted another layup to quell the Hamilton threat.

In the final minute, Hobart was 7-of-8 from the charity stripe to close out their first win over the Continentals since Feb. 11, 2003 (103-101 2ot).

Junior guard Colby Feane (Weedsport/Weedsport, N.Y.) also reached double digits for the Statesmen with 17 points, while Flacke and sophomore forward Mike Mastro (Jericho/Westbury, N.Y.) shared the team lead in rebounds with nine apiece.

First-year center Georgi Chavleishvili (St. Anne’s-Belfield School/Tbilisi, Georgia) came up a point and a board shy of a double-double for Hamilton.

The Statesmen return to action at 8 p.m., on Jan. 14, at St. Lawrence University.