MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

Fredonia State's Tyrone Clark was selected as the SUNYAC Player of the Week for the week ending 2-9. Here's the writeup from the YAC website:

Clark played every minute of both SUNYAC road games totaling 63 points and 18 rebounds. He averaged 31.5 points this week and shot 55% from the field. Clark has scored 30 or more points five times this season averaging 21.7 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, and shooting 53.7 percent from the floor.

Congratulations to Tyrone for an excellent week.

[magicman]

The Game of the Week is on tap for tonight.

Brockport State at Geneseo State  8:00 PM

Another big game as the top two teams in the YAC match up tonight in Geneseo. Brockport won an earlier meeting that wasn't resolved at the end of regulation, as the Golden Eagles had to squeak one out in overtime, 73-68. First place is not on the line in this game since Brockport, even with a loss will still hold the tiebreaker over the Knights.

The tiebreaker, between these two teams as it presently stands, if Geneseo wins tonight, would be determined by which team has the better overall road record  (thanks to "thebear" for supplying us with that very secure information). Since Geneseo has already lost two road games and Brockport would only have tonight's road loss on their record, they would maintain their 1st place status should Geneseo come away with the win.

The Golden Eagles have made this series rather one sided over the past 4+ years, winning 8 of the past 9 matchups. Tonight is probably the best opportunity for the Knights to get the W, since January 17th 2012, their only win over Brockport in recent history. The Golden Eagles have reeled off 4 straight victories since then and had 4 straight wins previous to that game.

This game will feature the, in your face defense of the Golden Eagles, who will press Geneseo the entire game when the Knights have the ball. And when the Eagles have the ball it will be a steady dose of John Ivy attacking the basket and looking to get to the line. Ivy and his backcourt mates will also look to fire up a volley of 3 pointers as they average over 21 attempts from downtown per game.

Geneseo will look inside to big man Gordon Lyons who already has 12 double-doubles on the year. The Knights will attempt to limit Brockport's possessions by going deep into the shot clock and run their offense until they get an easy look to either Lyons or Connor Fedge. The Knights have plenty of options from long distance as well, with 4 players all having more than 22 three pointers this season. It was 2 long bombs in the Plattsburgh game, 30 seconds apart with the game winding down, that proved to be difference maker there.     

The oddsmakers, interestingly enough, despite the last game going into overtime at Brockport, have made the home team Knights a slight 2 point underdog. I was fairly confident that the pointspread would favor Geneseo, but that's not the case. Picking the winner of this game is difficult as it will, in all likelihood, come down to who makes a play in the final few seconds. You might as well flip a coin. I did just that and Brockport won. I'll take the Golden Eagles to win another barnburner by a 73-70 final score.       

[magicman]

End of the 1st half in Geneseo with the host Knights leading Brockport 36-34.

Neither team could manage to put any distance between them as the largest lead was a 5 point advantage by the Golden Eagles. The teams had 6 ties and 7 lead changes and Brockport missed a layup at the buzzer that would have left them  tied at the break.

Gordon Lyons with the lions share of the points for the Knights as he has 16 markers on a perfect (so far) night of shooting, He's 7x7 from the floor and 2x2 from the line. Gordon almost has his 13th double-double of the year as he grabbed 9 rebounds in the opening period.  Connor Fedge and Matt Curry both have 9 points for the Knights.

Matt Lee is the high man for the Golden Eagles as he has 12 points going 4x5 from long distance. Patrick Coyle is next with 5 points. Brockport had 9 different players score in the first half while Geneseo had just 4 players break into the scoring column.

[magicman]

Brockport leads Geneseo 65-62 with 1:04 left to play. John Ivy just made two free throws and Geneseo takes the ball out and brings it up to their frontcourt and calls a time out with 56 seconds left.

Geneseo works the ball around but doesn't get a good shot off with 23 seconds left. Brockport's Clifton Lyerly gets the rebound off the Geneseo three point miss and is fouled but misses both free throws. Geneseo rebounds the 2nd missed free throw and calls another time out.

Geneseo has Fedge drive to the basket as they go for a layup but Patrick Coyle blocks the shot and Brockport's Brandon Caruthers is fouled. He misses the first one and makes the 2nd one to extend the lead to 66-62 with 13 seconds left. Geneseo comes down and throws up a 3 pointer that misses, they get the rebound and fire up another one that misses and Brockport walks off with the win.

Final score 66-62. Another great game for the fans who once again got more than their money's worth.

[scooterman]

Way to go Eagles--Matt Lee found the range to be that second scorer tonight--Nice floor game by Caruthers with 0 TO's and "boards by Coyle and Lyerly." As usual Poison Ivy made them itch and great team effort. Keep rolling!!!!

[magicman]

Brockport State 66  Geneseo State 62


Well the Game of the Week didn't disappoint the fans that showed up to take in this contest. The game featured 14 ties and 12 lead changes, with the biggest lead by either team occurring in the first half when Brockport was up 15-10 and late in the 2nd half when Brockport also had a brief 5 point advantage.

Almost the entire 2nd half was a one possession game until a John Ivy 3 pointer put  Brockport ahead 59-54 with 2:38 left to play, which matched the largest lead of the first half. But that lead didn't last very long as Geneseo's  Thomas Decker buried a three pointer of his own, 18 seconds later,  to cut the lead back to 2 points. Ivy once again responded for the Golden Eagles with a drive to the basket to make it a 2 possession game, with just under 2 minutes remaining.  Gordon Lyons was fouled and he made both free throws, but the Eagles big man, Patrick Coyle got loose underneath and slammed one down to make it 63-59 with 1:21 left. Decker responded with another trifecta, cutting the lead to a single point, but Ivy drew another foul, made both free throws and gave the Eagles a little breathing room, making the score 65-62. Port would tack on one more free throw in 4 attempts and Geneseo couldn't capitalize on the Eagles failed opportunities to build a bigger margin from the line, as the Knights came up empty on their final 4 shots from the field.

John Ivy scored 23 of his game high 26 points in the 2nd half. The Knights must have felt pretty good at halftime as their zone defense held Ivy to only 3 points in the opening period. But in keeping with the theme, that you can't keep a good man down, Ivy picked up the Eagles, and carried the team to the finish line. John scored over 71% of his team's 2nd half points and his final 7 points gave the Eagles some breathing room each time the Knights got it within a point or 2. He was 7x13 from the field, 3x4 from long range and 9x11 from the line. He added 5 rebounds, 1 assist and a steal in 36 minutes of playing time.

Matt Lee was the only other Brockport player in double figures and all 12 of his points came in the first half on 4 three pointers. Brandon Caruthers only had 5 points but dished out 5 assists and had 2 rebounds as his floor time was limited by early fouls in both halves. Patrick Coyle had 9 points and led the Eagles with 7 rebounds. Clifton Lyerly matched Coyle with 7 rebounds as well.

Brockport only shot 36.4% from the field (20x55), 32% (8x25) from downtown and 69.2% (18x26) from the line. They had 34 rebounds to 35 for the Knights, and 13 turnovers to 16 for Geneseo.

Key statistic of the game...Brockport got 19 points and 82 minutes from their bench. Geneseo got no points and only 36 minutes from their bench. That was the biggest reason I went with the Golden Eagles to win this game. Coach Dunne has shown on a number of occasions that he has no reservations about switching his entire starting five for the 2nd unit. That enables the Golden Eagles to keep the pressure on the entire game, while giving his starters a needed break.   

Gordon Lyons had his 13th double-double of the year with 25 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Knights. He was 9x12 from the field and 7x9 from the line. Connor Fedge had 14 points, with 3 assists, while Matt Curry totaled 13 points, 8 rebounds and a pair of blocks.

The Knights shot 44% from the field (22x49), but only 14.3% (2x14) from long distance. They shot 72.7% from the line (16x22).

If you happen to check out the box score's play by play it will look pretty confusing, as it currently shows the Brockport men playing against the Geneseo women. All the baskets and free throws are correct but are credited to women instead of the Geneseo men. For instance all of Gordon Lyons' baskets are credited to Jenna Philips and Matt Curry's points are under Bridgett Ryan. I'll email their SID and hope it gets straightened out.

Brockport improves to 12-1 in the conference and 18-2 overall. The Golden Eagles took a big step toward securing the regular season championship as they have opened up a 2 game lead over their closest pursuers. They also own the tiebreaker against both Plattsburgh and Geneseo so they effectively have a 3 game lead. They would need to lose 3 of their remaining 5 games and either Plattsburgh or Geneseo would need to win out for the Eagles to fall out of first place and that isn't going to happen. If I was Greg Dunne I'd be whipping out that victory cigar right about now. (And I know he'll wait till it's actually official, but I'm congratulating him now so I can be the first to do so). So Congratulations to the Brockport Eagles on a job well done. I was hoping it would be my Cardinals hosting the SUNYAC tournament but now the road to the automatic NCAA bid will pass through Tuttle North. That's okay, though, my Cardinals know how to win there and will look forward to the challenge. I fully well expect the Golden Eagles and the Cardinals to duke it out in the SUNYAC Finals for that automatic bid.

Brockport will return to action this weekend when they travel to Buffalo State on Friday evening and then Fredonia on Saturday afternoon.

Geneseo drops to 10-3 in the YAC and 16-4 overall. Although they are tied with Plattsburgh for 2nd place, the Cardinals currently own the tiebreaker over the Knights by virtue of a 1-1 record against Brockport while the Knights are 0-2 against the Golden Eagles. The Knights are back on the court this weekend as they follow the same path as their travel partners, Brockport, and will face first Fredonia and then Buff State.

I had Brockport winning this game by a 73-70 final score. I was pretty close as they won by 4 instead of 3. The long scoring drought that took place early in the second half when the teams went nearly 4 minutes with out scoring a single point kept me from getting my totals.

Another stat worth mentioning was there were only 48 free throws in the game as opposed to the 87 free throws when Plattsburgh played Brockport last Friday. The officials in this game did seem to let them play quite a bit more than that threesome of zebras that were in Brockport did.               

[NYHOOPS8]

Good win for Brockport. I believe they have established themselves as the favorite in the SUNYAC. Now their hope is to not see pesky Buff State in the conference playoffs.

[magicman]

The first set of Regional Ranking have been released and as expected SUNYAC teams occupy the top 3 spots. I believe Plattsburgh will be ranked ahead of Geneseo once last nights loss by the Knights to Brockport is factored in. Here they are:

East - NCAA data sheet

1 Brockport State 16-2 17-2
2 Geneseo State 15-3 16-3
3 Plattsburgh State 16-4 16-4
4 NYU 15-5 15-5
5 Hobart 17-5 17-5
6 Stevens 14-7 15-7

Here's the link to the complete rankings:

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

[scooterman]

Magic--I believe I hit the point spread on the head last night--I agree that PBurg should be ranked ahead of Geneseo. PBurg and the Port styles are so similar that when they play it is a toss up. Buff State has the man power to give Bport fits at home. The Eagles don't usually shoot the ball well at the Bengal hall, but think it is a 6 point win for Ivy and Company!!! Go Eagles

[magicman]

Magic--I believe I hit the point spread on the head last night--I agree that PBurg should be ranked ahead of Geneseo. PBurg and the Port styles are so similar that when they play it is a toss up. Buff State has the man power to give Bport fits at home. The Eagles don't usually shoot the ball well at the Bengal hall, but think it is a 6 point win for Ivy and Company!!! Go Eagles

Yes scooter, you did have the 4 point spread right on the money. You need to thank several of the Golden Eagle guards for missing 3 of 4 free throws in the final 30 seconds to help you out, though.

[scooterman]

Magic--They had the earphones in; and I had them on speed dial. LOL--Bengal--I am actually surprised the Buff ST. boys are so up and down this season. They have talent as usual, always athletic group, and experience with their inside guys. Anyway, hope they don't put it all together against my Eagles--Bport by 6--sticking with my pick--miss the Anchor Bar wings--no comparison down here. Golfing Friday my friends--Enjoy!

[magicman]

Golfing Friday my friends--Enjoy!

Enjoy? Enjoy what? The Noreaster that's bearing down on us and will be dumping another foot of snow on us starting tomorrow afternoon. Twenty below zero this morning, warming up tomorrow just in time to get dumped on. Hope Oswego and Cortland get on the road early for their trip to the North Country. Knock in a couple of birdies for me will you.

PS: How good is Coach Dunne on the golf course? I guessing when he's in form he's an 8-10 handicap. Am I close?

[Bengalsrule]

Magic--They had the earphones in; and I had them on speed dial. LOL--Bengal--I am actually surprised the Buff ST. boys are so up and down this season. They have talent as usual, always athletic group, and experience with their inside guys. Anyway, hope they don't put it all together against my Eagles--Bport by 6--sticking with my pick--miss the Anchor Bar wings--no comparison down here. Golfing Friday my friends--Enjoy!

That makes 2 of us when it comes to figuring out my BENGALS! The most talented team I've seen, from top to bottom, in years. 5 different leading scorers, 11 different starting line ups and yet we can't get this thing right. I'm hoping that the sense of urgency ( must win at least 2 of our last 4 games) to have a shot at a playoff berth) will have them focused!

If they put it all together and do what they are capable of doing then I like our chances this weekend. Operative word is "IF"!!!  I'm thinking that a couple of coach Ansari's 6 am practices this week has gotten everyone's attention! If so then Friday night could be special. Doubt that we will stop Ivy completely but there's a couple of kids on the BENGALS who I firmly believe have the ability to make him work. And if the rest work hard, take care of the ball, look inside for Mitchell, Thompson and Kirkland ...then we have a chance

No predictions just hoping that the boys play hard. My God if they do make the playoffs and peak at the right time?!.?!.?!!!!

Go BENGALS!!

I love those boys!!!!!!

[scooterman]

Magic--Coach Dunne is a single digit handicap---don't play him for money!! I hit driver, and he hits 3-5 irons--LOL--Sorry you guys are having such a horrible winter. You can come visit and get out of it. Golf tomorrow at 7:22 (tee-time). BENGAL--maybe 6AM practices will help but the boys from the Port are not letting down!!!Eagles by 6

[Bengalsrule]

Say no more!!!!