Potsdam, NY - Junior Conrad Zampier scored a career-high 29 points for the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team on Tuesday night, but it was Drew Zlogar's free throws in the final minute that helped preserve a 74-72 win over St. Lawrence in Liberty League action at Alumni Gymnasium.

The Golden Knights improved to 6-8 overall and 3-2 in the Liberty League, while St. Lawrence suffered its first conference defeat and fell to 6-5 and 2-1. Clarkson will close out a five-game homestand this weekend when it hosts RIT and Hobart.

Clarkson scored nine of the first 11 points through the opening five minutes and held a 12-4 lead early in the first half as Zampier was making his shots in the early going. St. Lawrence, however, went on a 12-0 run in less than three minutes midway through the half, turning a six-point deficit (23-17) into a six-point lead (29-23). A 3-pointer from Riley Naclerio pushed the Saints' advantage to nine points, something that would be repeated two more times in the half, but Zampier buried a 3-pointer on Clarkson's final possession to pull the Knights back to within six at the break (40-34).

The Saints held on to their lead in the first few moments of the second half, and led by five points before Clarkson ran off seven straight, capped off by a Zlogar 3-pointer with 11:39 to go in the game. Though St. Lawrence would come back to tie the game on two occasions, the Knights would never trail again. Felix Abongo converted a lay up and free throw to spark a 10-0 run, again finished off by a Zlogar 3-pointer with 7:13 to go, but St. Lawrence coach Chris Downs changed tactics and put the Saints into an extended zone to keep the Knights off balance. The strategy worked for a while as St. Lawrence was able to rally back to within one on three separate occasions. However, Zlogar made three of his four free throws in the waning seconds to allow Clarkson to keep its modest lead. Kaleb Faison had a good look from beyond the 3-point arc with about four seconds to go, but the shot drifted right, giving the Knights their sixth straight win over St. Lawrence.

Zampier's 29 points tied for the most points by a Clarkson player against St. Lawrence (Felix Abongo had 29 in 2013-14) in the past 14 years, falling five points short of the Golden Knights' record versus the Saints in the shot clock era (34 by Steve Vega, 2001-02). Zampier shot 10-for-15 overall and 5-for-8 from beyond the 3-point arc in 37 minutes. Felix Abongo finished with 16 points and nine rebounds and Zlogar came off the bench to produce 14 points in 21 minutes. For St. Lawrence, Riley Naclerio had 17 points, going 7-for-12 from the field, to go along with eight boards and three steals. Willie Zachery proved a sparkplug off the bench scoring 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting and dishing out four assists. Ben Crawford also added nine points for the Saints.