MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[jdex]

Appears Oswego holds off Plattsburgh 79-76. Lakers by 13 with 4' left. Burgh within 77-76 on S. Thomas trey at 0:14. OSt's C. Burridge lands two ft at 0:04. Cards turn over final bid. OSt 39-33 at half.

[jdex]

Cortland to OT at Potsdam .....57 all

[jdex]

Oneonta 64, Geneseo 62

[jdex]

Potsdam 62, Cortland 60 n OT ........Free throw by C. Pierce puts Pdam up by one at 0:39 and J. Lambet ft at 0:24 posts final margin. Bears by 30-24 at half, yield to Corts by five late in reg. when Lambert hits first of two ft at 0:25 for 57-57 tie. Corts miss at 0:02. Corts also get two shots in closing seconds of OT. Neither falls. T. Efese 20 pts. spark Bears on 7x11fg, 3x5 3s. .Pierce 16 pts, 10 rebs. Bears 23x45fg, 32-25 reb. CSt's J. Winter 21 pts(8x11fg, 3x6 3s), J. Smith 14 pts, H. Hefele 14 pts(all second half), K. McMahon 9 pts, 7 rebs

[jdex]

Buffalo St. 92, Fredonia 79

Brockport 80, New Paltz 61

[jdex]

Buffao St. game actually went to OT with Bengals outscoring Freds 21-8. BS in 39-34 intermission lead but squared at 71 thru reg. J. Simmons 38 pts on 11x19fg, 6x11 3s, 10x12ft. Freds Monahan 23 pts(6x23fg, 2x12 3s), A. Smith 21 pts

[thebear]

Interesting look at the future of the SUNYAC, Potsdam ended the game with three freshmen and two sophomores,
Dragons had four sophs and a freshman.  Cortland soph Winter is the real deal, although playing 45 minutes probably hurt him in the end game.

Potsdam 2nd semester pickup Tony Efese led Bears with 20 and could be a future star with his length (6-4 guard), athleticism, and shooting range.  Potsdam soph Curtis Pierce, altho an undersized four at 6-2, once again stands out with a double double including some very tough inside moves.

Two tired teams tomorrow afternoon when the Bears face the Lakers.  Lakers won a track meet at Plattsburgh, then get an early morning bus ride through the frozen tundra,' Bears were able to spread minutes with 9 players seeing at least 10 minutes, so may be a little more rested with slower pace, and no travel.

Again kudos to Doug Logan, Mark Larson, and Dan Liedka for a first rate broadcast by the Time Warner
folks.

[jdex]

Brockport guns on 34x65fg target to dismiss New Paltz. Port in 36-21 command at the break. NP within four at 8:56. Z. McTigue bucket stops slide. Finishes with 14 pts, 8 rebs in 23'. G. Williams 14 pts in 36'. Hawks H. Wichard 17 pts, S. Taylor 16 pts, 6 rebs

[magicman]

Bear,
Talked with Chad Burridge tonight before the game and thanked him for making 2 foul shots and a jumper  against Cobleskill the other night to save face for the SUNYAC. Asked him to spare the heroics against Plattsburgh but he managed to garner scoring honors of 18 points along with 8 boards. Met his parents after the game. Nice folks who follow the chatter on the boards. They'll be looking to say hello to you tomorrow afternoon. Nice win for the Bears tonight. Good chance it put them in the playoffs.

[magicman]

Just back from the Oswego-Plattsburgh game. Final score of 79-76 was surprising because the Lakers had a 73-60 lead with 4:03 to go and were still up by 10 at 77-67 with 1:46 remaining. A basket by Cards Errol Daniyan cut the lead to eight at the 1:25 mark and 3  trips to the foul line by the Cards over the next minute resulted in 4 more points making the score 77-73. Cardinals foul with 23 ticks left and Lakers miss the front end of a 1&1. Cards rebound and Steve Thomas hits a 3 pointer that narrows the lead to a single point with 14 seconds on the clock. Oswego takes a timeout and Plattsburgh tries for the steal on the inbounds pass. Cardinals fail on the steal attempt and let too much time tick off the clock before finally fouling Chad Burridge with 4 seconds remaining. Burridge calmly makes both free throws and Plattsburgh fails to get off a final attempt.

Burridge was the leading scorer as he finished with 18 points (5x19 fg,0x2 3's, 8x10 ft), but did struggle from the field as he was double teamed much of the night. He also led the Lakers with 8 rebounds. Chad had a monster dunk early in the 2nd half as he grabbed a missed shot by a teammate and with perfect timing slammed it home. Hayden Ward was close behind Burridge with 17 points(5x10 fg, 1x2 3's, 6x6 ft) and 6 rebounds. Ryan Sheridan had 11 points (5x11 fg, 0x3 3's, 1x2 ft) with 6 boards, and Conor Managhan also added 11 points (5x12 fg, 1x5 3's,).

Plattsburgh was led by freshman Shavar Fields with a career high of 16 points (5x14 fg, 6x9 ft) and 7 rebounds. Shavar had a pretty good dunk as well midway through the 1st half on a nice feed from Chris Ruiz. Errol Daniyan had 15 points (7x16 fg, 1x4 ft)and 9 rebounds. He also had a huge dunk on a feed from Carl Munnerlyn. Ruiz scored 13 points (3x14 fg, 1x4 3's, 6x7 ft) and had 6 assists while Munnerlyn chipped in with 10 points as did Steve Thomas. Cardinals won the battle of the boards 46-40 but lost the game at the foul line as they only converted 18 of 33 attempts.

Oswego now stands at 13-1 in conference play, 18-3 overall and although they haven't clinched the regular season crown I don't see anybody with a chance of taking it from them. A win on Saturday afternoon against Potsdam will clinch it for the Lakers. Even if they lose their last 3 games to finish at 14-4 and Brockport or Plattsburgh ties them with the same mark, Oswego holds the tiebreaker over both teams.  I think the worst they do is go 3-1 in their last 4 games, but actually think they will win out. So all the SUNYAC teams can plan on making hotel reservations in Oswego for the SUNYAC Final Four. I don't think you'll see the 8 seed beat the 1 seed this year.

Plattsburgh, with the loss tonight is now tied with Brockport at 10-4 for 2nd place but the Golden Eagles hold the tiebreaker over the Cardinals. Plattsburgh will take on Cortland Saturday afternoon.     

[magicman]

As always Magic's comments are insightful ( except that one about the Laker loss to Cards this weekend).  Must've been something he ate as that comment was more of the inciteful nature (thems fighin' words)!!

with age,
Spoke to your "New" team's coach after the game Friday night and congratulated him on Oswego's outstanding season. Gave him a big hello for you. He returns the hello and must have been browsing on the Liberty League board as he wondered if you were coming north this weekend to see Clarkson play Hobart. Did you make the game? 

[magicman]

The positives that came out of Oswego's win over Plattsburgh tonight is that Oswego will pick up some more support in the Top 25 Poll (if they defeat Potsdam on Saturday). Oswego's position as the #1 team in the East region improved as it was not only another regional win but since Plattsburgh is a regionally ranked opponent it helped out that part of their resume also as the Lakers improve to 3-1 against regionally ranked opponents. Should Oswego fail to win the SUNYAC tournament their chances for getting a Pool C bid are excellent and just got better.

For the Cardinals it just may be the old adage that it's tough to beat a team 3 times if these 2 schools should meet again in the SUNYAC tournament. It's a little too early for that kind of talk because at the very least Brockport and Buffalo State will have something to say come tournament time. As much as Coach Stockwell and the Laker team want to win the tournament and grab the automatic bid, I'd like to see them get upset in the Championship game. Obviously I hope it's my hometown Cards that do so, but regardless of who does it, I believe Oswego will get a Pool C bid and this will give the conference 2 teams in the NCAA tournament. The only other conference team that is regionally ranked is Plattsburgh and it would take a perfect storm for the Cards to get a Pool C bid after losing to the Lakers Friday evening. The best the Cardinals could do is win out and lose the SUNYAC championship game which would give them a 20-8 record overall and a 19-6 regional record. There are 5 teams from 4 conferences ranked above them in the regional rankings (of which one is Oswego who would win the SUNYAC). Plattsburgh would need 3 of those other teams to win their league's automatic bid. Those leagues with the teams are the Liberty League (Hobart), the Empire 8 (Ithaca) and the UAA (Rochester). That would leave Stevens and Plattsburgh as the top 2 teams competing for a Pool C bid from the East. And there's no guarantee that either one would get a bid when put side by side with the top teams from the other regions. Plattsburgh would have to finish stronger than Stevens to jump over them in the rankings and would then be sitting at the top of the East region. This same scenario plays out if Stevens get the Empire 8 automatic bid and Ithaca is the team that Plattsburgh has to jump over. If Oswego, Rochester, Hobart, or Ithaca doesn't get an automatic bid then that team or teams will be at the top of the East Region awaiting a Pool C bid. I'm not sure if the East will get more than 1 Pool C bid. If Oswego, Rochester and Hobart are all vying for a Pool C bid then I could see the East possibly getting 2 but if the mix is anything less than 2 of those 3 teams I think we any get 1 and maybe none. Of course all this postulating is based on the fact that the teams I've mentioned continue to play well and avoid a serious swoon in their final 4 or 5 games.       

[magicman]

Four games this afternoon all with 4 PM starts.

Geneseo State  @    New Paltz State
Chances are slim that the Hawks host a playoff game with Buff St holding a 3 game lead. Hawks would like to slip no further than 5th however to avoid a 1st round matchup with the top 3 teams, none of whom they have beaten this year. Geneseo with an opportunity to move into a tie for the 8th and final playoff spot. Not on Senior Day in Hawktown. New Paltz wins 85-76.       
   
Cortland State  @    Plattsburgh State
Both teams coming off tough losses last night. Will the Cards have a bigger letdown than the Red Dragons since their game had more on the line? Eight Cardinal Seniors say no way! Plattsburgh over the young Cortland squad 78-67.       
   
Brockport State  @    Oneonta State
Golden Eagles firing on all cylinders right now. Winners of 5 in a row, all by 15 points or better. Oneonta finally got a win last night after 5 straight losses. Don't think they make it 2 in a row. Brockport wins, but it should be a close one 70-66.
       
Oswego State  @    Potsdam State
Oswego can clinch the regular season title with a win today over the Bears. Potsdam's overtime win last night was their thrill for the week. Upsetting the top ranked Lakers is too much to ask. Oswego clinches home court as they down the Bears 80-69.           
   

[jdex]

What the $%^#$&! Just had a chance to check live stats .........Cortland 70, Plattsburgh 49 with 7-plus minutes left!!! Pburgh by two at the half  ...........Hey, Magic, you playing games or what ?!!!!

[jdex]

Appears to be final .....Cortand 83, Plattsburgh 69  ......so much for cold hands. Dragons connect on 15 of 22 3-pointers!!! Lights out performace. Lead by 23 with about 10 minutes left before gutty Pburgh comeback pulls within 10 and time left .......Corts close it out from the line. J. Smith 24 pts(8x13fg an 7x9 3s); J. Winter 22 pts(7x12fg and 4x6 3s); J. Connolly 17 pts(6x11fg and 4x6 3s); K. McMahon 15 pts. Winter adds seven assists, three steals. For Pbugh it's C. Ruiz 20 pts(8x19fg); E. Daniyan 15 pts, 19 rebs

Oswego 53, Potsdam 47