MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

New Regional Rankings were released earlier today. Here's the East Region:

Through games of Sunday Feb. 7th 2010

East Region: In-Region Record followed by Overall Record
1. St. John Fisher 17-4 18-4
2. Stevens 16-4 16-4
3. Medaille 19-2 20-2
4. Oneonta State 15-5 16-5
5. New York University 13-6 14-6
6. Nazareth 14-6 15-7

For a complete list of all the regions click on this D3Hoops link:

http://d3blogs.com/d3hoops/category/ncaa-stuff/regional-rankings/

[magicman]

Cortland leads Potsdam 39-25 at the half.

[magicman]

Plattsburgh up by 9 over Oswego at the half 37-28 . Chris Ruiz with a big 1st half for the Cardinals has 20 points on 6x7 from the field 4x4 from 3 point land and 4x4 from the line.

[jdex]

Cortland by as much as 20 in the first half and defeats Potsdam 75-62 behind D. Marshall 26 pts(10x13fg, 4x5 3s), 6 rebs, 9 ASSTS!! P. Oliver 14 pts(6x8fg); B. Nagle 12 rebs, 8 pts(3x5fg). Corts 31x60fg to Pdam 24x60. C. Pierce 25 pts(9x14fg), 6 rebs; J. Lambert 8 reb; O. Minott 8 rebs, 8 pts

Oneonta 70, Buffalo St. 64

[jdex]

Brockport comes from 26-20 halftime deficit to beat Geneseo 55-50

Oneonta overcomes 39-34 Buffalo St. halftime lead. RDragons take lead at 14:11 and hold off Buffs who get within four at 3:52 after down as many as 10. B. Beckford paces OSt with 18 pts(7x19fg), 13 rebs; M. Grimes 11 pts; B. Hooks 11 pts; S. Gillette 10 pts; K. Walsh 10 pts. Go 25x62fg, 3x9 3s, 17x26ft. BS led by G. Carr 22 pts(6x15fg), 7 rebs; J. Simmons 18 pts(8x19fg); TO Jackson 10 pts(4x7fg), 4 blks. Bengals 24x58fg, 2x10 3s, 14x27ft

[magicman]

Plattsburgh St. tops Oswego St. 81-66.  Cards in control throughout the game are up by 15 early on and settle for 37-28 lead at the break. Lakers close to within 5 early in the 2nd half but Cards quickly open back up by 11 and continue to lead by a comfortable margin until Oswego cuts it to 6 with 4:30 left to play. Steve Thomas then nails a 3 pointer, is fouled in the process and makes the free throw to complete the 4 point play. Oswego never closer than 10 after that. Chris Ruiz led the Cardinals with 25 pts followed by Carl Munnerlyn with 17 and Steve Thomas with 12. Lakers were paced by Stanley Francois with 13 pts and Jose Uribe with 12. Lakers big man Chad Burridge was held to 3 pts.

Cardinals move to 9-5 in conference play, 14-7 overall and move down the road to take on Cortland St. tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 in a battle for 2nd place, with the winner trying to keep Brockport in their sights. Oswego drops to 4-10 in SUNYAC play and 10-11 overall, below .500 for the 1st time all year. hosts Potsdam tomorrow afternoon also at 4 PM.    

[jdex]

Brockport maintains conference lead but doesn't erase Geneseo halftime lead till 8:28 left. Close thereafter, with final margin the Port's widest second half separation. Eagles shoot 7x30fg in opening 20' and finish 15x55fg, 7x28 3s, 14x20ft. G. Williams 14 pts(4x13fg, 2x6 3s); spare Z. McTigue 11 pts(3x4fg, 5x7ft) in 19'. Gens 16x37fg, 2x9 3s, 16x27ft and 41-27 reb gap. J. Drazen 13 pts(3x5fg, 7x8ft). B. Simpson 8 pts(all in first half), 9 rebs; K. Stevens 7 pts, 4pf in 14'

[magicman]

Fredonia St. holds serve at home beating back New Paltz challenge in overtime 67-62. Blue Devils even their record in the YAC at 7-7 while the Hawks fall to 7-8.

New Paltz travels to Buffalo St on Sat for a 4 PM matchup.
Fredonia hosts Oneonta also at 4 PM tomorrow afternoon.

[magicman]

Top five teams in the conference beat the bottom five teams in the conference Friday night so the only move was made by Fredonia who started the night a half game in back of 5th place New Paltz. By beating the Hawks the Blue Devils now occupy 5th place.

The top 4 teams are coming down the stretch and it looks just like last year with any one of them capable of grabbing regular season honors and the right to host the conference tournament, assuming they win their quarterfinal matchup. I don't think we'll see a repeat of last year's finish when 4 teams all finished with 11-5 records, but it could happen.

League leader Brockport at 11-4 with 3 games left still needs some help to clinch 1st place even if they win out. With 2 of their 4 losses to Cortland St. and with Cortland tied with Brockport in the loss column, the real league leaders are these Red Dragons. Golden Eagles sure hope someone can lay another loss on Cortland otherwise they lose the tiebreaker if they both finish 14-4 based on Cortland's 2 wins over Port. Brockport is off on Saturday and plays their last home game on Tuesday against Buffalo St. They then have to make the trip north to take on last place Potsdam before facing Plattsburgh State in a rematch of their double overtime game against the Cardinals back on Jan. 22nd.

The problem for Cortland is a tough finishing stretch with 3 of their 4 remaining games on the road and the 4 teams they have to play are right behind them breathing down their neck. First up is Plattsburgh, the Red Dragons final home game, this afternoon at 4 PM. They then have to travel to Oneonta, Buffalo St. and Fredonia to finish up league play. If they win those 4 games they deserve to be crowned league champs. They are the only team left in the SUNYAC that controls their own destiny.

Oneonta can win out and finish 13-5 but they need help in a variety of ways. They need Brockport and Cortland to each lose 2 games because they would lose tiebreakers to either of these teams if they ended up tied for the top spot. They also need Plattsburgh to lose 1 game. 

Plattsburgh can still win the regular season title if they win out, but would need a little help. If they do win out, the Cardinals would own the tiebreaker against Brockport and Oneonta, but if they are tied with Cortland at 13-5 it would depend on the order of finish of the remaining teams as to who would win the tiebreaker between these two. If Brockport finishes in 3rd then Cortland would win the tiebreaker. If Oneonta finished in 3rd then Plattsburgh would win the tiebreaker.

There is also a chance that if Plattsburgh wins out, Brockport wins 2 of their 3, with the loss being to Plattsburgh, and Oneonta wins their final 3 games that they will all finish at 13-5 and. If that happens Plattsburgh would win the tiebreaker based on a 3-1 record against the other 2. Port would be 2-2 and Oneonta would be 1-3.

Then there is a possibility of a 4 way tie. Without going into the details, there is a chance that the four above mentioned teams could all finish 12-6. And it's still too early to say who the winner of that tiebreaker would be. One thing to remember is that winning the regular season title only guarantees you the right to host the semis and finals if you win your quarterfinal matchup. Last year the 4 way tie for 1st resulted in Geneseo gaining the top seed with Buff St the 2nd seed, Oswego the 3rd seed and Oneonta the 4th seed. Then what happened? The 1st, 2nd, and 4th seeds all lost leaving the 8th seed Brockport playing the 3rd seed Oswego, who got to host the tournament as the highest remaining seed. And the Golden Eagles completed their amazing run by beating Oswego and then Fredonia to win the SUNYAC tournament and get the automatic NCAA bid. 

The teams that are currently in 5th place and below have no chance or very little chance of winning the regular season crown and are playing for a higher seed.

The biggest game on tap today is The Plattsburgh at Cortland game. These 2 teams have been the hottest clubs in the conference over the past 3 weeks. If the Cardinals can upset the Red Dragons on the road, then they might have the easiest road left to the top spot since they finish up with their final 3 games at home.  They finish by hosting Potsdam and then Geneseo. The final game of the regular season will have Brockport coming to town in what could be a battle for the top seed. The last 3 games these 2 teams have played were all decided in overtime. In fact they have played 8 times in the past 5 years going back to the 05-06 season and they have each won 4 of those games. In addition to the 3 overtime contests, 3 others were decided by 2 points. The remaining 2 games saw Port win by 6 and the Cardinals win by 5. I don't know of any other rivalry where the past 8 games have been that close.
Oneonta can't afford a letdown against Fredonia this afternoon either, if they want to continue their march for the top seed. After shooting themselves in the foot with 3 straight losses at the end of January, just as they were starting to get some national attention, they have rebounded with 5 straight wins to get back into contention.     

[jdex]

Cortland up big early. Settles for 40-30 lead at half

[magicman]

Cortland grabs an early 10 point lead on Plattsburgh State as they jump out to a 14-4 lead after the first 6 minutes of play. Red Dragons pile it on opening up a 30-9 advantage with 8:16 remaining in the 1st period. Still up by 21 at 36-15 with 4:42 to play, the Cardinals go on a 15-4 run to close to within 10 and go into the break only down 40-30.

[magicman]

Oswego St. leads Potsdam St. 38-28 at the half.

[magicman]

Cortland's lead has been cut to 61-57 with 7:12 left to play.

[magicman]

Cortland & Plattsburgh all tied up at 63 1:34 to play Plattsburgh's ball.

[jdex]

Plattsburgh comes all the way back to deal Cortland 69-65 loss