MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

The home teams are shooting the lights out and are both holding double digit leads at the half

Cortland 55 New Platz 29

Cortland opened the game with a 17-4 run to take command from the git go. Kevin McMahon is leading the way for the Red Dragons with 14 points. Live stats quit working about 7 minutes into the game so the other info is unavailable Did see a nice buzzer beater for three points by Chris Williams off a kick out pass by mcMahon at the end of the half


Oswego State 40 Oneonta State 25

Lakers came out strong as well and had a sizable lead early on at 19-8. The lead continued to grow and reached 16 points on several occasions before the teams went into the locker rooms with the 15 point differential.

Walter Sampson leads the Lkaers with 9 points. Elijah McLaurin has 8, and Daniel Ross has 7.

Zach Mager and Kareem Williams both have 7 points for the Red Dragons .

[magicman]

Both games winding down and Cortland has a huge lead over New Paltz 81-53 with the 2 minute warning now up.


Oswego still holding off Oneonta but those Red Dragons have narrowed the gap to 63-54, but are running out of time with just 1:48 left to play

[magicman]

Final scores:

Cortland 84 New Paltz 56.   I had Cortland 78-71. I thought the Hawks would give them a game, but they were never in this one.

Oswego 71 Oneonta 61     I had this one a little closer as well with the Lakers winning 70-67.

Cortland along with Oswego break out of the 4 way log jam that was 4th place. Cortland and Oswego now share 4th place. Buffalo State is a half game back in 6th place and Oneonta has fallen from a tie for 4th down into 7th place.

[FranElia]

Sorry about the live stats, magicman. Wi-fi in the gym went down in the first half. Luckily the video crew was plugged into an ethernet outlet, so the video stayed on. I have to rely on wi-fi for my stats, though. Signal never came back on. Stats are now up on Cortland site and D3hoops.  - Fran

[magicman]

Sorry about the live stats, magicman. Wi-fi in the gym went down in the first half. Luckily the video crew was plugged into an ethernet outlet, so the video stayed on. I have to rely on wi-fi for my stats, though. Signal never came back on. Stats are now up on Cortland site and D3hoops.  - Fran

Thanks for the heads up Fran. You must have been reading my mind. I was at work watching the webcast and after the game was over I headed to the local Price Chopper for some groceries Mrs. magicman needed. When I got home we both had to watch The Tonight Show since Jay only has a couple of days left.   I was thinking about the live stats not working and wondered if it was my computer as I had a guy in my store today doing some work on it. I was getting set to post on the board and ask you if there was a problem with the live stats or if it was my computer. And voila, like magic,   you have already answered my question.  Plus K   

[magicman]

Four games in conference play all scheduled to tip off at 8:00 PM tonight.

Potsdam State  at   Geneseo State      8:00 PM

The Bears finally got in the conference win column last weekend as they beat New Paltz and they almost made it 2 in a row but dropped a hard fought game to Oneonta 81-77. But that was at home and against 2 teams that most likely won't be in the playoffs. Tonight and tomorrow it's a game of a different color. First up is the Blue Knights and Geneseo will be looking to stay in the hunt for the top seed in the SUNYAC. A win today and a victory on Saturday over Plattsburgh will give them a chance to take over 2nd place. I don't think they look past Potsdam and risk the upset. For the past 5 years these teams have played each other twice a year and no one has swept the series, during that span. I believe tonight that's about to change. The point spread has the Knights favored by a large 23 point margin. I'm not sure they win by that many, though it wouldn't surprise me, but they will win by a comfortable 80-64 score.
   
   
Buffalo State  at  New Paltz State      8:00 PM

This is the weekend the Bengals have to play up to their potential and take care of business if they want to: 1. make the playoffs, and  2. host a playoff game. Last year they ended up on the outside looking in when the regular season ended, missing the playoffs by a single game. And who was it that beat them out for the final spot?...None other than tonight's host, the Hawks. Buffalo State was 7-6 going into this game at Hawk Center last year. A win would have given them a sweep of the season series and if they both ended up 9-9 the Bengals would have the tiebreaker in their hip pocket. Instead they lost that game, finished with 3 more losses in their final 4 games and ended up 8-10. The Hawks finished 9-9 ending up as the 6th and final seed. Flash forward to almost a year to the day that game was played. The Bengals are in 6th place in the YAC with a 6-6 record. The Hawks with a 3-10 log, are, short of a miracle, out of contention. Can you say spoiler? What else do the Hawks have to play for except to make every game seem like a playoff game? The Bengals better get off the bus with their "A"  game because the Hawks can take it to you if you don't. I watched them come back from big deficits just last weekend against Plattsburgh. In the past 6 years Buffalo State has only won 1 game in New Paltz and that was 2 years ago. Even in the years when the Hawks were putting together conference records of 4-12 and 2-14 they owned a win over Buffalo State in Hawk Center. The Bengals find themselves in the same situation as they did last year, only the team that's looking to push them out of playoff contention this time, is the team they will face tomorrow afternoon, the Red Dragons of Oneonta. A loss here against the Hawks will only put more pressure on the Bengals to secure a playoff spot. With the 4th, 5th and 6th seeds so closely bunched together it's still possible for any of those teams to clinch a home playoff game by finishing in 4th place. Third place would seem to be a stretch as the top 3 teams have opened up a big gap from the rest of the pack. The point spread favors the Bengals in this game by 5 points and I'm sure the 2 teams will put on their track shoes for this one. In the past 7 games they've played these teams have combined for a minimum of 162 points and as many as 208 points exactly 2 months ago. I'll take the Bengals to win by a final of 89-83.           
   
Fredonia State   at  Oneonta State      8:00 PM

Fredonia hasn't won back to back games all year, but then they've only had 4 chances to do so. Tonight they get a 5th chance as they come off their biggest win of the season, a 68-66 won over Oswego State last Saturday. Oneonta needs to win to keep pace with the other teams they are battling with to make the playoffs. The Red Dragon have seen their fortunes fade as they tumbled from 2nd place all the way down to 7th place by going 1-6 in their last 7 conference games. With 5 games left they can't afford to drop a game to the team that's near the bottom of the standings. As it is I only see Oneonta winning 2 of their remaining games, which will leave them with an 8-10 record in the YAC. Tomorrow's game against Buffalo State will be huge. But first they have to get by the Blue Devils. The point spread favors Oneonta by a 12 point margin. That's a point less than they won by 2 months ago in Fredonia. The Red Dragons will go to Zach Mager early and often and will win this one by a 75-64 score.   
   
Plattsburgh State  at  #15 Brockport State      8:00 PM

This is the Game of the Day and of the Week in the conference as the top 2 teams square off. I was hoping that both teams would be ranked in the Top 25 by the time this meeting took place but only Brockport has that distinction. The Massey Rating system does have both teams in the Top 25 however as Brockport is ranked in the #6 spot and Plattsburgh checks in at the #20 spot. Plattsburgh was at #18 three days ago but dropped to 19th on Wednesday and 20th on Thursday despite not playing. Brockport won the last encounter in Plattsburgh on January 11th in come from behind fashion, as they've done a number of times this season. The Cardinals will be looking for payback as they let that one slip away in the closing minutes. This will be the 15th meeting in the past 8 years and the Cards hold a slim 8-6 margin in the previous 14 games. Nine of those games have been decided by 7 or less points. In tonight's game the oddsmakers have made the home team Golden Eagles a 6 point favorite. Brockport features a high scoring backcourt of John Ivy, the SUNYAC's leading scorer at 22.1 ppg. The D3hoops pre-season All American has lived up to his billing and then some. Brandon Caruthers may not have All American status attached to his name but I don't think he knows that, as his level of play has also been outstanding. He is among the leaders in scoring 13.2 ppg, assists 3.9 apg, and steals 2.5 spg. Big man Patrick Coyle puts up 8.5 ppg and 7.5 rpg, while freshman Clifton Lyerly adds 7.7 ppg and 3.1 rpg. In last weeks overtime win against Geneseo, Lyerly led the team in scoring and was the main reason the Eagles overcame a first half deficit as he scored 11 straight Brockport points to end the half.

Plattsburgh counters with Shamoy McIntosh 14.9 ppg, 4.5 rpg, Shavar Fields 13.8 ppg, 6.0 rpg, John Perez 11.8 ppg, 8.5 rpg, Ed Correa 10.6 ppg, 48 3 pointers (40.7%) and Chris Manning who leads the YAC in assists with 91, 5.5 apg and is 2nd in steals with 55, 3.1 spg. The Cardinals have excellent offensive balance as anyone in their rotation can lead the team in scoring. They have a wealth of 3 point shooters and are shooting 40% from long distance.

There are only 31 teams in Division III that have 3 losses  or less and 3 of those teams are in the SUNYAC. Brockport, Plattsburgh and Geneseo. In addtion Brockport has the 4th longest winning streak in the country with 15 in a row. 

Once again I believe this game will come down to who makes a play or two at the very end of the game, as so many of their previous matchups have turned out. I'm going out on a limb here and taking the Cardinals to put an end to the Eagles 15 game winning streak by an 81-78 final score. 

[7express]

So, Magic do you think this is make or break weekend for the Cardinals??  Going 0-2 likely leaves them short of the regular season championship I assume??  Still think they'd get a pool C slot with an 0-2 weekend if they don't win the YAC tournament and grab the auto bid??

[magicman]

So, Magic do you think this is make or break weekend for the Cardinals??  Going 0-2 likely leaves them short of the regular season championship I assume??  Still think they'd get a pool C slot with an 0-2 weekend if they don't win the YAC tournament and grab the auto bid??

7,

This IS a make or break weekend. The only chance we have to win the regular season championship and host the playoffs is a 2-0 weekend. If we lose tonight we'll have 3 losses, Brockport will have none. They would own the tiebreaker over us so they would have to lose 4 games in order for us to pass them. That's not going to happen as Brockport will lose at the most 2 games in the conference.

We have to win tonight and win tomorrow. We could very well win tonight and lose tomorrow. A loss to either of these two teams will take us out of the running for the top spot and the right to host. If we do go 2-0, we still need Geneseo to beat Brockport next Tuesday when Brockport travels to take on the Knights. Then Brockport and Plattsburgh would both have 2 losses, Geneseo would have 3 losses and we would own the tiebreaker over Brockport by virtue of a sweep of Geneseo, versus a Brockport split with Geneseo. And of course we'd have to win all of our remaining five games.

That's a tall order for my Cardinals to fill. Realistically you hope you can go 1-1 on this long road trip and if you do, you consider it a success. That won't get me what I need though, so I'm hoping my dream can come true and the guys pull off the improbable. (I did wish upon a star )

Brockport could almost clinch this weekend (as far as I'm concerned) if they beat Plattsburgh tonight and Plattsburgh should beat Geneseo tomorrow. That would give them a 3 game lead and there's no way they will be caught.

I do think the Cardinals will  get a Pool C bid if they don't win the automatic bid by winning the YAC tournament, unless they lose some games they shouldn't. Still a lot of basketball to be played and Buffalo State, Oswego and Cortland are all capable teams that can beat you on any night. Heck so can't Fredonia or Potsdam for that matter. No easy outs in the YAC this year.     

[magicman]

Heck of a game going on between Brockport and Plattsburgh. Plattsburgh has the lead at the break 43-36

Brockport's John Ivy scored the first basket of the game but the Cardinals Shavar Fields got a layup and then hit a pair of free throws to give visitors the lead. Fields got another layup but then the Golden Eagles scored 8 straight points to go in front 10-6. Plattsburgh would spend the next 12 minutes trying to play catch up while the lead fluctuated between 2 and 6 points. The Cardinals finally caught the Eagles with 3:17 to go on another layup by Shavar Fields. Seconds later Fields stole the ball and scored again to give Plattsburgh the lead for the first time since the early going with 2:57 left. Brandon Caruthers drained a 3 pointer for Brockport but Fields struck again as the Cards went back in front on a 3 point play by the Cards big man. John Ivy got a hoop and harm of his own and put the Eagles back in front at 36-35 but John Perez got back to back layups to put the Cards in front to stay.  Ed Correa hit a pair of free throws and Perez got loose inside at the buzzer for another bucket to give the Cards the 43-36 lead at the break.

John Ivy led the Golden Eagles with 13 points and Brandon Caruthers had 7.

Shavar Fields had 15 points to lead the Cards  and John Perez had 10.   

[magicman]

Buffalo State leads New Paltz at the break 44-41

Oneonta leads Fredonia 38-32 at the half

Geneseo leads Potsdam 36-23 at the half

[7express]

it's like I'm watching DaQuan Brooks from Western Connecticut out there.  Does Ivy realize he has 4 other teammates on the court with him??

[magicman]

Yes he does and many times he finds them. Sometimes he sets up in the high post with his back to the basket and dishes off when he gets the ball or will turn and go to the hoop. He's very versatile. 

[magicman]

Updates:

Plattsburgh 66 Brockport 62   9:50 to go

Buffalo State 77 New Paltz 57 7:06 to go

Geneseo 74 Potsdam 60 47 seconds to go

Oneontya 59 Fredonia 57 6:20 to go

[magicman]

Final from Geneseo

Geneseo 78 Potsdam 61

[7express]

Free throw shooting has killed Brockport here.  I want to see the final numbers, I'd be surprised if they finished above 70%.