MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

Oneonta 71 Potsdam 57 is the final score I think. Livestats quit working with 24 seconds showing. Potsdam with a less than stellar effort tonight. Trailed the whole game and was down by as many as 26 in the second half with 11:44 left to play. Both teams have now been eliminated from post season play.

[magicman]

Fredonia leads Buffalo State 35-34 at the half. Julius Bryant with 16 points for the Blue Devils. Nico McLean leads the Bengals with 10 points.

[jdex]

Oswego rallies late in opening half for 24-21 lead into the break. Geneseo held 16-6 lead with six minutes till half

[magicman]

Cortland leads Brockport throughout the 1st half and was up by as much as 13 points but Brockport comes back to narrow it to  42-35 at the half. Jeremy Smith with 12 and Harrison hefele with 11 for the Red Dragons

Kyheem Green with 13 for the Eagles.

[magicman]

Buffalo State down by as much as 10 points in the 2nd half has come back to take the lead over Fredonia 53-52 with about 8 minutes to go.

Oswego now up by 14 over Geneseo 52-38 with 8:54 to go

Cortland still leads Brockport 57-52 with 10:43 to play.

Correction Oswego leads Geneseo 56-50 with about 5 minutes to go.

[magicman]

Oswego defeats Geneseo 67-56.

[magicman]

Buffalo State with a 68-65 lead over Freds with just a couple of minutes to go

[jdex]

Cortland in 83-65 command ....

[magicman]

Buffalo State up 68-67 with the ball and 6.7 seconds to go. Time out on the floor. Fredonia fouls and Bengals Norman Simmons makes both free throws. Blue Devils call time out down by 3. Fredonia comes down under heavy pressure and only manages a heave from the corner that never draws iron and the Bengals escape with a 70-67 win. That's not bad I predicted a 71-68 Bengal win. How do you like them apples Bengalsrule?

[magicman]

Cortland final 85-67 over Brockport. Big win for the Red Dragons. Even bigger game coming up this weekend against Buffalo State. Could be, should be, for 2nd place in the YAC.

[jdex]

Cortland pulls away for handsdome 85-67 conquest. Brockport shaves lead to two at 16:18 but J. Winter and H. Hefele land treys for RDragons. J. Ivy and B. Manning trade points. Corts widen gap to 66-56 at 8:46. Eagles climb back to six. Winter FTs and bucket begin Corts prance to finish line. Winter, K. McMahon, Manning, Hefele play big in second period. Hefele 19 pts(6x11fg, 3x6 3s), 12 rebs, 7 assts in 30'; J. Smith 17 pts(3x5 3s); Winter 19 pts(5x10fg), 6 rebs, 4 assts; McMahon 14 pts(5x8fg); Manning 12 pts(5x10fg). CSt 26x59fg, 8x25 3s, 25x29ft. Port's Ivy 15 pts; K. Green 15 pts and gimps in second half after taking a spill; D. Jackson 10 pts, 6 rebs. Eagles 22x61fg, 4x17 3s, 19x22ft. Corts outboard guests 40-34

[magicman]

Quite a ballgame between Fredonia and Buffalo State.  Blue Devils took the early lead and were up by 6 at 10-4 and 12-6 but Bengals came roaring back and went out in front by as much as 8 at 25-17. Blue Devils returned the favor with a 11-0 run to regain the advantage at 28-25. Teams trade baskets and leads for the rest of the period as Fredonia had a slight 35-34 edge at the break.

Blue Devils opened the 2nd half with a 13-4 run and opened up the biggest lead if the night at 48-38 with 15:36 to go. Bengal's Rodney Epps and Nico McLean scored the next 9 points to bring Buff State back within 1. After Fredonia's Leonard Smith nailed a jumper to make it 50-47, the Bengals finally caught them on a 3 pointer by Jake Simmons, his only one of the night. Tied at 50 with 10 minutes left to play the teams would have 7 lead changes along with 6 ties, until the Bengals finally got the lead for good when Ahmed Nagaya rebounded his own miss, got the putback and was fouled. He completed the 3 point play to put Buff State up 68-65. The Bengals got killed on the boards all night long, but the one that mattered most was all Nagaya's and it turned out to be the game winner. It came with 1:34 left to play and Fredonia scored 17 seconds later to pull within 1 but they never scored again as they misfired on their next possession and got called for a charging foul the next time they got the ball. Buffalo State almost committed a mortal sin as they were inbounding the ball at the Fredonia end with 26 seconds to go and still only up by 1. They just had to get the ball in to Jake Simmons or McLean and they would get fouled and go to the line. Instead the player inbounding the ball inexplicably tossed a short floater of a pass that the Blue Devils picked off and immediately called time out. Fortunately for the Bengals, after working the ball for the go ahead basket, the Blue Devils Leonard Smith was called for an offensive foul with 6 seconds to go. They had to foul Norm Simmons on the ensuing inbounds pass and he knocked em both down for the final cushion. With no Justin Mitchell and with Blue Devils all over Jake Simmons, Fredonia said you're going to have to beat us with somebody other than the usual suspects. And so the Bengals did just that as Nico McLean went 7x13 from the field and scored 19 points to lead Buff State. He was 4x5 from the line, had 6 steals (he's the biggest thief on a team of thieves, as the Bengals lead the conference in thefts by a wide margin) 3 assists, and 3 rebounds. His 6 steals tonight gave him 45 in 16 SUNYAC games. That's a huge lead over the player in 2nd place. Ahmed Nagaya scored 14 points (5x6 fg, 4x4 ft) with 5 rebounds and Roderick Epps added 13 points (5x9 fg, 2x5 3's, 1x1 ft) to help offset the loss of Mitchell. Bengals didn't shoot all that well tonight going 26x60 from the field (43.3%), but only 5 x22 from long distance (22.7%). The were 13x17 from the line. (76.5%) As I mentioned they were beat off the boards 39-26 but did create controlled havoc on the court  causing the Blue Devils to have 20 turnovers to only 11 for themselves.

I mentioned in my pre-game write up that Julius Bryant would be a load tonight and he didn't disappoint as the Bengals had trouble with him all night long. They did D him up pretty good near the end of the game as they tried to go inside and the Bengals quickly doubled him down low. He was the game's high scorer with 29 points (12x16 fg, 5x7 ft) as well as the leading rebounder with 13. Damien Goodwin had 15 points ( 6x11 fg, 3x3 ft) along with 6 rebounds. Leonard Smith had 8 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds. Fredonia shot 50% from the field, 26x52, and like the Bengals didn't hit much from downtown going 2x12 for 16.7%. They were 13x18 from the line (72.2%).

Buffalo State will now travel to Oswego State on Friday night and they really need to win there if they hope to have a chance at the 2nd seed. I posted earlier that their game against Cortland this Saturday could be for 2nd place, but the odds are that they will need to beat Cortland to secure a third place finish. They are in danger of falling all the way down to the fifth seed as they played the easiest of their three remaining games tonight. The next two will only get tougher. Should they lose them both and Brockport or Geneseo wins their final two games (and they both have home games against Plattsburgh and Potsdam this weekend) the Bengals could find themselves in fifth or possibly even sixth place come Sunday morning.

Fredonia faces the same task as the Bengals as they play Cortland then Oswego this weekend. They could still end up in 4th place but it would take a perfect storm for that to happen, given the matchups that they and the teams ahead of them are looking at. Realistically, the Blue Devils have got the #6 seed. They may not like it but they're stuck with it. They could end up with a third game against their travel partners. I bet they'll request more game tape from the Bengals. Eventually they might figure out a way to beat them.

[Bengalsrule]

That's not bad I predicted a 71-68 Bengal win. How do you like them apples Bengalsrule?

Love THEM APPLES magicman! One helluva of a game... I can't add anything to whats already been said. Time to hit the sack and then pray that my BELOVED BENGALS find a way to beat Oswego Friday!

[magicman]

New set of Regional Rankings have just been released. Not a lot of changes in the East. The only change was Hobart leapfrogging over NYU.    Here's the East rankings:


EAST                      In Region     Overall
1.   Hartwick               21-2          22-2

2.   Oswego State       19-2          19-3

3.   Hobart                 18-4          19-4

4.   New York U.         18-4          18-4

5.   Medaille               20-2          21-2

6.   Nazareth              16-6          16-8

For the complete list of Regional Rankings, here's the link to the NCAA page:
http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d3/regional_rankings

[magicman]

Final weekend of play in the SUNYAC.

This is how I think the final standings will end up. The only teams that are locked in at the moment are Oswego, Plattsburgh, and New Paltz. The 2nd through 6th positions are still subject to change.

1.   Oswego
2.   Cortland
3.   Buffalo State
4.   Geneseo
5.   Brockport
6.   Fredonia
7.   Plattsburgh
8.   New Paltz
9.   Potsdam
10. Oneonta

That would make the first round games on Tuesday look like this:  Again, this is just a prediction, as this weekend's results could change the projected standings I posted above.

New Paltz at Oswego
Plattsburgh at Cortland
Fredonia at Buffalo State
Brockport at Geneseo