MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

Nov. 26    Four Teams in action today in non-conference matchups. The Oneonta game against Binghamton is an exhibition game




St. John Fisher  at  Buffalo State        6:00 PM

The Cardinals weren't expecting to be 3-2 after their first 5 games and their ranking in the D3hoops Top 25 preseason poll is now a memory. They also want a little payback for last year's home loss to the Bengals. They returned quite a bit from last years rotation with 4 starters back and 7 of their top 10. Buffalo State has significant losses from the team that upset Fisher last season. The question is do they have enough firepower to pull off another upset? The reason I say upset is because the oddsmakers have made Fisher a 6 point favorite in this one. The Bengals haven't played in 10 days while Fisher is coming off a win over RIT 3 days ago. I think the Bengals can win this game yet I hesitate to pick them. The Cardinals could have beaten Rochester last week as that game went down to the wire. Fisher actually had a 6 point lead at 73-67 with 5 minutes to go but then missed 6 shots in a row and had three turnovers in that stretch. It turned the game around and allowed Rochester to go on a 11-2 run and win 78-75. I think the Cardinals will play better today.

I hope I'm wrong on this one but see the Bengals dropping a close 78-74 decision to the Cardinals.   Go Bengals!       


Potsdam State   at     Clarkson                6:00 PM

The Bears have already knocked off Canton and St. Lawrence. Now they will try to take down their crosstown rival, Clarkson College, to complete their 2nd straight year of sweeping their local rivals. After suffering for a number of years, Potsdam State, under 4th year head coach, Jim Bechtel, has managed to put the Bears in the driver's seat when it comes to local bragging rights. Potsdam, in the 7 years before Coach Bechtel arrived at Potsdam, was 4-15 overall, against Clarkson, Canton and SLU. His first two years the Bears were rebuilding and were only 1-5 against those schools. Now they have won 5 straight and a win tonight would give them the 2 year sweep.

The Bears are undefeated in this young season but their strength of schedule isn't the best. Clarkson is 2-2 with a pair of 8 point losses. One of those losses is to Oswego, in a game that found the Golden Knights ahead at the half. Clarkson hung with the Lakers for the entire game and actually had the lead at 64-62 with 5 minutes to play. Still tied at 69 with 3:34 to go the Lakers finally got some separation and pulled away in the final few minutes. So the Knights won't be going, quietly into the night and the Bears better go into Alumni Gym with their "A" game. The teams do have a common opponent in SUNY-Canton. The Bears won a close battle against the Kangaroos while Clarkson dropped a close game to them. When it comes to this rivalry though, anything can happen.

The point spread favors the Bears by a slim 3 point margin. I don't think the game will be decided by much either. I'm taking my Bears to win but won't be surprised if they lose. Potsdam wins 74-69.     


Oneonta State   at  Binghamton  (Exhibition)           7:00 PM

The Red Dragons get to play a Division I school again in an exhibition game. Always fun to get the opportunity. I hope the guys can put up a respectable showing. They have nothing to lose so go out and play like that! As always if we score 50 and keep them under a 100 I consider that a win. I think we can do that tonight.

The Bearcats have some pretty tall fellows but I think their starting lineup will be a pair of 6'3" guards. A 6 foot guard, a 6'8" forward and a 6'6" forward. They'll bring in a 7 footer to play center off the bench and a pair of 6'4" guards to back up the starters. The rest of their players haven't seen much floor time but may get in if the game gets out of hand. I'm thinking Oneonta can play with this team for a while and if they can hit their threes will keep it respectable. The Red Dragons are due to break out of this slump they've started out the season with. So play loose and do just that..... Oneonta won't win but they only lose to the Bearcats by a 91-63 final score.   


Oswego State  at  Nazareth                        7:30 PM

This will be the 4th time Oswego's Coach Leone has squared off with Nazareth in his tenure as the Lakers head coach and he's looking to even his record against the Golden Flyers to 2-2. The Lakers won last year's battle 70-55 marking Coach Leone's first win after 2 straight losses. Now he'd like to start a streak. Plus ancient history shows that Nazareth has a pretty good lead in this series by a 22-9 margin. The Lakers can finally get their win total to double figures in this series but will have to do it on the Golden Flyers home court.

Nazareth has already won 2 games over SUNYAC opponents, Buffalo State and Fredonia. A win tonight would put them in first place in our conference with a 3-0 record. Nazareth is 4-1 with their only loss coming against Rochester by a 77-56 final score that isn't indicative of how close the game really was. Naz was within 4 points of Rochester with under 6 minutes remaining before the Yellowjackets put the game away.

The Lakers need to play better than they did against Clarkson. They allowed that team to hang around far too long and it could have cost them. Tonight they have the same situation as they travel to another team's house. Nazareth lost a lot from last years' team. Their entire starting lineup is different but all of them are returning rotation players from a year ago, waiting for their turn to shine. They all saw action against Oswego and scored a total of 10 points in that game. They'll score quite a bit more this time around.

The oddsmakers think that Nazareth is still a solid team despite all their losses to graduation and have only made the Lakers the favorite by a single point. So the game is essentially a tossup. I think the game will be close as well but I see the Lakers winning by a handful. Oswego wins this one 77-72.


Update on the SUNYAC's non-conference won-lost record.

The SUNYAC has went 21-16 heading into today's 3 non-conference games. (Remember Oneonta's game doesn't count) That will leave us with 27 more non-conference games after today making a total of 67. We are 3 games short of the 70 games we could have because Potsdam only has a 24 game schedule and Buffalo State is only showing 23 games. Our record is not nearly as good as I hoped it would be. There is still time to make improvements on the record but we will need a run of good luck to do so. I'm hopeful with the games tonight and the other 27 that are left, that we can go 20-10. That would give us a final record of 41-26 or something close to that. It's hard to project when there are a number of holiday tournaments coming up and I have no idea who we will be playing in the 2nd game of those tournaments. The final non-conference game of the season will take place when Plattsburgh State travels over to Middlebury College to face the Panthers. I'm guessing they will still be ranked highly in the Top 25. I mentioned in my Skidmore-Plattsburgh pregame comments that #13 Middlebury would likely move into the Top 10 in the new D3hoops poll due to come out. It was released on Monday night and the Panthers jumped from #13 to #5. I consider that game one of our losses. We need to do well in those holiday tournaments, especially Brockport, Cortland, Oneonta and Oswego, in that early January tournament.           

[magicman]

Potsdam State defeats Clarkson 90-75.

[magicman]

St. John Fisher 89  Buffalo State 83  Final score.

[magicman]

Oneonta trails Binghamton 53-29 at the half.

Andres Rivera leads the Red Dragons with 13 points.  Kameron Hickey and  Ian Schultz both have 7 points. No Joseph Bull for Oneonta tonight.

Binghamton has balanced scoring as 9 players break into the scoring column.  Sam Sessoms is the leading scorer with 12 points.

[magicman]

Oswego 32 Nazareth 34

The Lakers Joe Sullivan grabs an offensive rebound and scores at the buzzer to cut the Nazareth lead to just 2 points as the half ends.
Both teams playing solid defense and the refs are letting them play. Only 4 fouls called on the Lakers in the half but the bad news is 3 of them are on their point guard Liam Sanborn. Lakers trailed for most of the half by as many as 8 points on 2 separate occasions. The Lakers with 9 first half turnovers to only 4 by Nazareth

Brandon Gartland leads Oswego with 11 points. Sullivan has 5 points and 6 rebounds. Julien Crittendon has 6 points. .

Nazareth gets 8 points from Zach Stenglein, 7 points from Isaac Nelson and 6 points from Stephen Gabel.

[magicman]

Oneonta down by 27 points at one point has come back with a nice run to close the gap to 12 points at 71-59. The Red Dragons getting a big effort from Andres Rivera who now has 22 points. 6-0 run forces the big bad Bearcats to call a timeout.

[magicman]

Oneonta 69 Binghamton 90 final score.

The Red Dragons got as close as 10 points, late in the game at 71-61, but Binghamton had a 19-8 run in the final 4 minutes to put this one away. I had Oneonta losing by a 91-63 final score so I wasn't too far off with my prediction. I was real close with the Bearcats' score just didn't figure Andres Rivera was going to go off for 27 points to lead Oneonta. I figured he'd only put about 20 on the board.

I wonder how Oneonta might have done if their other big man, Joe Bull, had been playing. Hope he doesn't miss much time. Nice to see the Red Dragons play a very competitive game against the DI Bearcats and good for the fans as well.

Andres Rivera did have a big night as he led all scorers with 27 points. He added 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks and 1 assist.

Kameron Hickey and Ian Schultz both scored 10 points with Schultz grabbing 5 rebounds.

Sean Nolan had 6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists.

The Red Dragons got beat off the boards 41-33 but only had 9 turnovers to 13 for the Bearcats.

Oneonta will return to action on December 6th when they begin conference play by hosting the Plattsburgh State Cardinals at 7:30 PM.

[thebear]

Potsdam defeats Clarkson at Clarkson tonight by the score of 90-75. 
Potsdam was led by Senior Jaquan Thomas who had 26 points in 25 minutes on 10x14 FG, 1x1 3FG, 5x7 FT. 
Freshman Tyrese Baptiste posted yet another Double Double with 14 points and 16 rebounds.
Senior Danny DelSol-Lowry added 16 for the Bears who go to 4-1. 
Bears went Up-tempo in the first half and led at the Break 55-39. 
Clarkson came back to close within 11 in the second half before Bears pulled away to lead 90-70 with 1:48 left before Clarkson scored the last 5 points.

Chris Hulbert led Clarkson with 22 on 5x7 from the arc and 7x11 from the stripe.
Reese Swedberg had 15 pts 8 rebs for the Knights.

Potsdam now 4-1 [loss to D-I Albany]
Golden Knights now 2-3.


Second year in a row that Bears have wins over all 3 St. Lawrence County teams.

[magicman]

Oswego State 77 Nazareth 73

This final score may be as close as I come all year long. My crystal ball had Oswego winning 77-72. That last point scored by Nazareth was a free throw that bounced several times before falling through. It could just as easily bounced out.

This was another good game as neither team could open up a big lead and keep it. The Lakers trailed for much of the first half by as many as 8 points and came back both times to get within a single possession. Down 34-26 with under 3 minutes left in the period, Oswego held the Golden Flyers scoreless and managed 6 points to close within 2 at 34-32.

Nazareth scored first to extend the halftime lead to 4 and after an Oswego miss scored again to go back up by 6 points at 38-32. The Lakers outscored Naz 9-2 over the next 3 minutes of play to grab their first lead since the early stages of the game when they had a 9-7 edge. Naz scored on their next possession to go back in front but that was the last time they had the lead. Oswego scored 7 unanswered points to jump ahead 48-42 and again the Golden Flyers responded to tie the game at 50-50. The teams would trade 3 pointers to tie it up again at 53, but Oswego used an 8-0 run to create some separation from the Flyers and that proved to be the turning point of the game. All 8 points in that run were scored by Freshman guard Jeremiah Sparks. Now up 61-53 with 6 minutes to go, Oswego countered each move that Nazareth made, as the lead hovered between 5 and 9 points. Naz hit a three and got back within a single possession with 17 seconds to go but had to foul and Liam Sanborn made both free throws to build the lead back to 5 points. Once more Nazareth buried a 3 pointer and fouled with 7 seconds to go. Again, Sanborn made both shots to make it 76-72 and Naz got fouled with 2 ticks left. Down by 4 points, Naz made the first and deliberately missed the 2nd hoping for the rebound and a three pointer. Oswego corralled the ball and was fouled a final time to send Julien Crittendon  to the line. He made 1 of 2 and gave me a perfect Oswego score to match my prediction.

Oswego
The Lakers Freshman guard Jeremiah Sparks had a career high 25 points to lead all scorers. He double-doubled his pleasure with a career high 11 rebounds. The 8-0 run that gave the Lakers the lead for good all came from Sparks and were part of 12 straight points he scored in a 3 minute span. He took the Lakers from a 53-53 tie to a 65-56 advantage. From the looks of things I don't think those stats will be his career highs for long.

Liam Sanborn had 18 points along with 5 assists and 2 rebounds. He picked up his 3rd foul in the first half but never got called for another one while playing the entire 2nd half.

Brandan Gartland had 14 points and 6 rebounds.

Julien Crittendon had 9 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists in 35 minutes off the bench.

Joe Sullivan had a game high 12 rebounds and 7 points.


Nazareth
Sophomore Zach Stenglein led Nazareth with 17 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds. He is the 2nd of 3 Stenglein brothers to suit up for the Golden Flyers. His older brother Tyler wound up his career last season as one of the top scorers in Nazareth history. His younger brother Zach joined the team this year as a Freshman.

Stephen Gabel had 15 points and 7 rebounds.

Isaac Nelson had 14 points. 3 rebounds and 3 steals.

Cody Green added 13 points and 3 rebounds.


Oswego was 22x50 from the field (44%) and 4x12 from long distance. Nazareth shot 30x71 from the field (42.3%) and 8x27 from behind the arc (29.6%). The Lakers enjoyed a huge edge at the foul line as they were 29x43 (67.4%). Nazareth was just 5x9 from the stripe (55.6%). Oswego led in rebounds 43 to 34 but had 15 turnovers to just 7 for the Flyers.

Oswego improves to 4-0 and will return to action on December 2nd when they travel north to take on St. Lawrence in Canton NY at 7:30 PM.

Nazareth falls to 4-2 and will not be in first place in our conference thanks to the Laker win. However they will be in contention in the Empire 8 conference this season despite losing all 5 starters from last year's team. They return to action on December 3rd at 7:00 PM against SUNY-Poly.


       

[magicman]

Potsdam now 4-1 [loss to D-I Albany]

bear,
That Albany game wasn't an exhibition game? D3hoops not showing it on their team page for the Bears. I guess that's why I could only count 24 games for the Bears. Albany makes 25.

Bears still undefeated according to D3hoops:  https://www.d3hoops.com/teams/SUNY_Potsdam/Men/2019-20/index

[magicman]

bear,   please note:

"Bears handle Clarkson 90-75 to complete North Country sweep"
"The victory gives the Bears a sweep of all three North Country rivals for the second year in a row."

This headline and story line from the Potsdam State website is incorrect at the present time. Now maybe someone there has a crystal ball, that is better than mine, and they can foresee 2 wins over my Cardinals (which is entirely possible this year) but the last I knew, Plattsburgh was considered part of the North Country and the Bears have yet to defeat us. In fact, since we are more Northerly than Potsdam and are only 15 miles from our Northern border with Canada, I think we can claim the distinction of being more "North Country" than Potsdam, but I won't quibble over that point.

I think someone in the sports information department at Potsdam needs a quick lesson from an old SID about what constitutes the North Country. I know, that you know, just the person to do that!    It sounds like...."a sweep of all three North Country rivals" is perhaps a bad case of adding and subtracting. In which case, subtracting Plattsburgh State, the largest of the 5 colleges in the North Country, from the North Country, is a bit of tricky math or perhaps sheer magic.....And I know all about magic!! So please straighten the Bears' SID out and who knows he may be able to use that headline sometime around February 4th at 9:30 PM, but I certainly hope he can't.

So, until Potsdam plays and defeats Plattsburgh twice this season I don't think the phrase "North Country Sweep" is allowed to come into play. As mentioned above, that may happen but until, and if it happens, I think all mention of that phrase should definitely be placed on hold.

As I stated in my pregame prognostication of the Potsdam-Clarkson game...a win over the Golden Knights would give the Bears a 2nd straight year of sweeping their LOCAL RIVALS. That they would gain LOCAL braggin rights. Nowhere was it stated they would gain a "North Country Sweep". I notice that even you, in your wisdom, made this statement in your posted summary of Potsdam's win over the Knights:

Potsdam defeats Clarkson at Clarkson tonight by the score of 90-75. 
Second year in a row that Bears have wins over all 3 St. Lawrence County teams.

Here, you have wisely used the phrase... St. Lawrence County teams, because you know from past experience that to claim a North Country sweep one has to consider the outcome of the Plattsburgh-Potsdam games. Both the Bears and the Cardinals have laid claim to North Country sweeps on numerous occasions although Potsdam's last one was quite a while ago. Canton wasn't always a participant since they were just a 2 year school until recently and even now aren't always on Plattsburgh State's schedule. In fact this year we don't play them. 

I am aware of your connections to Potsdam over the last 50 plus years and I'm sure you can arrange to have that misnomer of a headline removed from the Bears write-up and replaced with one that isn't "fake news".

After all the last time that a sweep of the North Country teams took place was just last season when Plattsburgh defeated Clarkson, Canton, and St. Lawrence in November ( all three wins in their barns I might add)  then won the home and home series with the Bears to truly SWEEP the NORTH COUNTRY. We also did it in 2017-18 so last season was just a repeat. Now we're trying for a threepeat.



                     

[magicman]

Buffalo State 83 St John Fisher 89.

Close game in the Queen City between these 2 teams that had 8 ties and 14 lead changes. The Bengals trailed early on, caught up after 5 minutes of play and went in front by as many as 9 points over the next 13 minutes. Down 19-18, a 9-1 run gave the Bengals a 28-20 lead with 7:34 left in the half. They lengthened that advantage to a 9 point margin at 34-25 with 5 minutes to go but 3 turnovers and 4 misses  in their next 7 trips down the floor allowed the Cardinals to rip off a 10-0 run and grab the lead at 35-34 with 1:37 remaining. Both teams hit some free throws to end the half with the Bengals trailing by a 38-36 score.

The teams spent the first 8 minutes of the 2nd half trading baskets and leads with no more than a single possession separating them. It was the Cardinals that finally made the penultimate move that put them in the driver's seat. Trailing by a point at 52-51 with 12 minutes to play, Fisher went on a 12-2 run fueled by 7 points from  Brendan Trapper to go in front 63-54 over the next 2 minutes of action. The Bengals were now playing catch up and they never quite could. They came close several times at 67-65, went down by 6  and  drew even closer once again at 74-73 with 4:35 to play. Still ahead by a single point at 78-77 with under 3 minutes to go the Cardinals went to the line and hit a pair to up the lead to 3 points. Needing to stay with Fisher, the Bengals instead committed turnovers on back to back trips down the court and the Cardinals made them pay. A steal and a dunk by Fisher's James Leone was followed by a 2nd steal by Leone resulting in another layup by him. Fisher called a timeout and when play resumed an offensive foul on the Bengals gave the Cardinals another chance to pad the lead and pad it they did. A one point lead was now a nine point lead in the space of 77 seconds and that was the ballgame. With time running out the Bengals threw up some long range shots but couldn't connect and the Cardinals went to the line and made 3 of 4 while Buff Sate got 2 quick layups in the final 30 seconds. The Bengals fought hard but they couldn't get over the hump once they fell behind by 9 points at 63-54. 

Points off turnovers was huge in this game as Fisher scored 22 points off 17 Bengal giveaways. The Cardinals had 10 turnovers that only resulted in 2 points for Buff State. BUffalo State had 46 rebounds to 40 for the Cardinals. Shooting percentages were fairly even as Fisher went 31x66 (47.0) from the field to 31x70 (44..3%) for the Bengals. Fisher was 4x17 from distance and the Bengals were 6x16
Fisher went to the line and hit 23 of 34 attempts (67.6%)  BUffalo State was 15x23 (65.2%).

Bengals
Kay Grant had a big night for Buffalo State as he captured both scoring and rebounding honors for the game with a double-double of 23 points and 14 rebounds.

Sheldon Adams had 20 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and a block.

Zion Guzman-Milton  also had a double-double of 13 points, 10 boards, 2 blocks, a steal and 1 assist.

Aaron Davis had 12 points, 9 assists and 3 rebounds.

Jordan Christopher had 11 points, 5 rebounds an assist and a steal.

St. John Fisher
Brendan Trapper was the high man for the Cardinals with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 assist.

Dennis Hare had 19 points, 7 rebounds amd 2 assists.

Matt Asenjo had 18 points, 4 assists and 4 steals.

James Leone filled the stat sheet with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks and 2 huge steals in crunch time.

Sammy Robinson had 7 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.

Sean Williams had 7 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal.


Buffalo State falls to 2-2 and  will be off until December 7th when they host Fredonia for a 4:00 PM start.


St. John Fisher improves to 4-2 and will travel to Hobart for a game on December 3rd at 7:00 PM. 

[magicman]

Just wanted to catch up on the SUNYAC Player of the Week awards.

Write-ups are from the SUNYAC web site.

Week #1          Week ending 11-9

Jake Passaretti      New Paltz State Junior Guard

Passaretti put up a game-high 22 points in the Hawks' 90-79 win over Baruch Saturday. He was active defensively as well, recording a game-high seven steals, which ranked second-most ever in a single game in program history. Additionally Passaretti totaled a team-high five assists, adding five rebounds, while shooting an efficient 5-for-14 from the field and 4-for-6 from 3-point range in just 28 minutes of action.



Week #2             Week ending 11-16

Brandon Segar Jr.     Potsdam State Junior Forward

Brandon Segar Jr. helped the Bears to a 2-0 week averaging 20.5 points-per-game and 12.0 rebounds-per-game. In an 84-74 win at St. Lawrence on Tuesday, he recorded his first double-double as a Bear with 17 points and 10 boards. On Sunday in a 96-79 win at NVU-Lyndon, he added another double-double with Potsdam career-highs in points (24) and rebounds (14). He also blocked three shots and totaled five assists.


Week #3               Week ending 11-23

Justin Summers          Brockport State Senior Forward

Justin Summers led Brockport to back-to-back wins last week, averaging 24.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game while shooting over 50% from the floor. He also did his job on defense with two steals and three blocks during the week. The team picked up its first win of the year, 75-74, against Hobart with Summers posting a 23 and 10 double-double. In the weekend victory against Medaille he finished with 26 points and nine boards, as the Golden Eagles won 96-84. He is currently third in the conference this season, averaging 20.3 points per game with Brockport holding a 2-1 record.     


Congratulations to these 3 young men on their excellent play over the last 3weeks.

[Bengalsrule]

Tough loss but encouraged. 5 players in double figures ( all starters) and both bigs get a double double.  I would summarize the game but Magicman has already done that.

Now is YAC time with fredonia coming to town Dec 7

Go BENGALS!

[magicman]

Dec 1        Just a 1 game on the slate today and 2 scheduled for tomorrow as the SUNYAC gears up for Conference play on Friday   

Salisbury    vs    Brockport        1:00 PM   V LS    Carnegie Mellon DoubleTree Green Tree Invitational @ Pittsburgh, Pa.

The Salisbury Seagulls played a game in this tournament on Saturday and lost a close 71-70 decision to the host team CMU. Brockport did not play a Saturday game as this is the only game they will play in this tournament. In fact the Carnegie Mellon team, is only playing that one game in their own tournament, yet the visiting Seagulls play 2 games. Not sure if I've ever seen that before. Maybe someone cancelled out at the last moment.

The Seagulls come into the game with a 3-5 record but they have been in nearly all of their games as 4 losses were between 1 and 8 points. Their most notable win was against Stockton by a 74-62 score. Salisbury lost 4 starters from last year's team but still returned 3 of their top 5 scorers and added newcomer, junior forward Devin Garrett, who is averaging 10 ppg and 6 rpg as a starter.

Brockport  comes into this contest with only 3 games so far this season and sporting a 2-1 record. The Golden Eagles have won 2 in a row after an opening season setback to Morrisville in a game that went down to the wire. Today Port will need to play like they did against Hobart and Medaille if they want to exit Pittsburgh with a W. Once again they will be at a height disadvantage against the taller Seagulls and will need to rely on their speed and points off turnovers to be a difference maker.

The oddsmakers think that Salisbury will win this one but have only made them a 2 point favorite. I see this as a close game also but I'm taking Brockport to be on the right end of a 75-72 final score.