MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

New Paltz leads Potsdam 36-28 at the half

Nick Taldi and Andrew Seniuk with 9 points each for the Hawks.

Zac Adams with 8 and Brandon Williams with 7 for the Bears.

[magicman]

Plattsburgh State takes down Oneonta by a score of  84-73. 

That's fairly close to my predicted final score of the Cardinals winning by an 83-76 margin. Details to follow a bit later.

[magicman]

 Barnburner at New Paltz as Potsdam has fought back to close within a single point at 65-64. Just a few ticks left.

Hawks with a free throw to make it 66-64  with 2.7 seconds left. Time out.  Potsdam inbounds the ball and races down court and gets off a decent shot 3 point attempt  at the buzzer by Rishawd Hendricks that draws iron but won't go down.

Hawks win a close one 66-64.

[magicman]

Here are the other 3 matchups for today:


Brockport State      Cortland State      6:00 PM

The Golden Eagles are on a roll and this game against Cortland will be huge in the standings for both teams. The Eagles have lost 4 straight to Cortland and revenge will certainly be a motive in today's contest. Cortland is looking to avoid a weekend sweep as they dropped a heartbreaker yesterday at Geneseo. The point spread favors Brockport by 10 but i think the game may be a little closer. I see the Eagles winning this one 76-69.

 
   
Geneseo State      Oswego State      8:00 PM

Oswego State desparately needs a win here as they have fallen to 4-3 in the YAC and currently find themselves in a 5th place tie with Cortland. Geneseo needs a win to stay ahead of Plattsburgh. This series is tied at 5-5 over the past 5 years but the Lakers have won 5 of the last 6 meetings. I think the Knights will have something to say about that today. The point spread favors Geneseo by a slim 3 point margin and I believe this will be a close game as well. This one will be a Geneseo victory by a 73-70 score.

 
   
Buffalo State      Fredonia State      8:00 PM

The Bengals are fighting for survival as they have dropped 3 straight in the conference and fallen from 1st to 7th in the process. The good news is Fredonia is up next. The bad news is they have to face Brockport and Plattsburgh right after that. A victory tonight will help them right the ship. Fredonia is coming off a 97-47 shellacking by the Golden Eagles. The good news is they won't get beat like that tonight. The bad news is they will get beat. Oddsmakers have made the Bengals a 12 point favorite. I don't think it will be that close. Bengals win 85-68.

[magicman]

Brockport over Cortland 40-30 at the half.

Golden Eagles with a 10 point lead and they recieved no help from their All American John IVy who picked up 2 early fouls in the first 3 minutes of the half and spent the rest of it on the bench. Brandon Caruthers was the big gun for the Eagles.

Cortland couldn't hit the ocean if they were standing on the beach as they went the first 10 minutes of the period without a field goal.
They were down by as much as 14 points but Lamard Herron scored in the final seconds to cut the lead to 10 at the break. Kevin McMahon was the leading scorer for the Dragons n the first half. 

[magicman]

Brockport 77 Cortland 65

I almost had this one as well as I predicted a 76-69 Brockport win.

Brockport led at the break by 10 points and quickly expanded the lead to 17 after 5:19 was gone in the 2nd. The reached their largest lead of 21 less than a minute later and were never seriouly threatened from that point on. The Eagles exorcised a few demons today  against Cortland, and took a firm hold on the lead in the conference, as they won their 5th straight SUNYAC game in the past 9 days. They have strung together 10 straight victories and improve to 11-1 overall.

They wiil be in action again on Tuesday when they host the Buffalo State Bengals, and then head east for the weekend to tackle Oneonta and New Paltz.

Golden Eagles were led by Brandon Caruthers with 23 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals.

John Ivy, who only played 17 minutes due to foul trouble in the first half finished with 11 points.

Patrick Coyle had 9 points and 5 rebounds while Adeniran Olusola had 7 points and 6 rebounds.

Cortland got a huge effort once again from Kevin McMahon as he scored 30 points had 14 rebounds and 4 assists. No one else was in double figures for the Dragons. Lamard Herron and Garen Spendjian had 9 points each.

McMahon led his team in points, rebounds and assists.

Cortland falls to 9-6 overall and 4-4 in the YAC. They are temporarily alone in 6th place pending the outcome of two night games later on.

They will return to action on Tuesday with a trip to Oneonta to try an avenge this week's loss to those Red Dragons. Then it's another grudge match with today's opponent as they travel to Brockport and hope to reverse the outcome of this afternoon.
 

[Pat Coleman]

To Magic and all contributing posters--Great discussion on the polls and enjoyed all the valuable information. I really don't think Pat will ever see the East Region as worthy of a Top 25 team, UNLESS undefeated and playing schedule outside of East Region.

Or if the East Region evolves and has more success in March. I mean, when the poll started, people used to say the same about the South Region, but teams in that region elevated their game.

[magicman]

Buffalo State leads Fredonia 39-34 at the half.


Bengals were a bit sluggish coming out of the gate and allowed the Blue Devils to open up a 19-10 lead after the first 6+ minutes had gone by. Bengals with a 9-0 run to tie things up and after a Fredonia 3 pointer put the back up 22-19 the bengals ripped off a 10-0 run tio go in front to stay for the rest of the period. They enjoyed their largest lead at 39-31 but the Blue Devils got a basket on theirv final possession to cut it to the 5 point lead at the break.

Justin Mitchell with 8 points to lead the Bengals. Legree Kirkland with 7 points and 6 rebounds. Jordan Glover with 7 points and Rod Epps with 6 points and 3 steals.

Tyrone Clark with 16 points to pace th Blue Devils. Eric Zwierlein has 11.

[magicman]

Oswego leads Geneseo 41-29 at the half.


Bryan Sortino with 13 points Daniel Ross with 8 for the lakers.

Gordon Lyons with 12 poins and 6 rebounds for the Knights

[magicman]

Geneseo wins at Oswego by a score of 66-62.

Again I was fairly close as I had the Knights winning by a 73-70 score.

The Knights had to overcome a 14 point second half deficit to pull out the win. More details later on.

[magicman]

The final game of the SUNYAC slate is over and the Buffalo State Bengals defeat Fredonia State by a score of 81-74.

Final score was a bit closer than my 85-68 prediction, but the 155 total points was only 2 off my 153 point projection. Gotta take what positives I can.       Did go 5 for 5 today as well.

[magicman]

Plattsburgh State 84  Oneonta State 73

The teams fought a spirited first half that featured numerous ties and lead changes and had Plattsburgh in front at the buzzer by slim 32-31 margin. The biggest leads of the half came early on by the Cardinals at 8-2 and 11-5. After the Red Dragons reversed that deficit by taking a 12-11 lead the teams were never separated by more than 3 points the rest of the period.  They continued to trade punches from the moment the 2nd period started until the 13:23 mark. The Cardinals got 3 baskets from John Perez and 1 from Ed Correa in a span of a minute and a half to move in front by 6 points for the largest separation since that 11-5 early lead they enjoyed. The lead continued to fluctuate between 4 and 6 points for Plattsburgh when the Cardinals, up 53-48, got a long range bomb from Chris Manning followed by a pair of free throws from John Perez and the first double digit margin of the night at 58-48 belonged to the Cards. Still down 10 points, at 63-53, with 9:30 left to play, the Red Dragons turned to their Jacks and Zachs as they got a 3 pointer from Jack Dignan, another 3 from Jackson Zuvic, followed by a layup by Zach Mager. Just like that it was a 2 point game again at 63-61, and only 1:08 had come off the clock.

The Cardinals would respond as point guard Chris Manning drained another 3 (can't remember if he has ever had a pair of  3's in a single game as he's usually setting up all the other shooters for them), back up point guard,Mike Mitchell, (not usually on the floor at the same time as Manning) then drained a 3 of his own and after two minutes of nothing but misses, from the field and the line for both teams, Shavar Fields sunk a pair of free throws to boost the Cardinals' lead back to 10 points, and the clock showed 4:41 remaining. 

Zuvic responded for the Dragons to cut it back to single digits, but the Cardinals got a pair of layups from Fields that sandwiched a 3 pointer from Eddie Correa and the lead reached a game high of 16 points. The victory cigar was ignited and it was just a matter of how many times the Red Dragons would foul to try and extend the game. Wisely they did so only 4 times in the final 2 minutes to keep the score a respectable 11 point loss.

Plattsburgh was led once  again by John Perez who has made a strong case for Player of the Week honors. John scored a team high 22 points and led the Cards with 8 rebounds as well. This effort come on the heels of his career high of 28 points last night against New Paltz. It seemed like every time we needed a score today Perez was there  with one to tie it up or give us the lead. Outstanding weekend for JP.

Shavar Fields also scored 22 points to tie for the Plattsburgh scoring honors. Shavar added 5 rebounds and a steal as well.

Point guard Chris Manning had a career high 16 points as he decided it was time to throw up a few 3 pointers of his own. The senior floor leader has been instrumental in helping the Cardinals' 3 point specialists, Shamoy McIntosh, Eddie Correa, and Ezra Hodgson get their shots off without being pressured, with his pinpoint passing and great field of vision. Tonight with McIntosh on the bench with an injury, and with the Red Dragons keying on Eddie Correa defensively, Manning used the opening to hoist a few of his own shots from downtown. I was at practice one night while he was shooting, so I started catching and returning the ball to him. I think he made about 18 out of 20 in one stretch (all three point attempts) and I commented about his improved ability from long distance asking if he was going to put up a few 3's of is own this year. He shrugged and said maybe, but all year long he's fed the ball to the other players with an occasional three pointer of his own. Tonight he took 5 shots from beyond the arc and made 3 of them, all at opportune times in the game. In addition to his 16 points, he finished with 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals.

Mike Mitchell and Ezra Hodgson both had 7 points as they were nearly perfect tonight shooting the rock. Between tham they were 5x6 from the field 3x3 from long range and 1x2 from the line.

Cards shot 56% from the field, (32x57) 58% from long range (7x12), but only 52% from the line (13x25) (Maybe they should fire up some jumpers or back up while taking their free throws) They had 32 rebounds the same as Oneonta but only committed 9 turnovers to 17 for the Dragons. Oneonta also shot the ball fairly well as they went 50 % from the field  (27x54) 45.5% from 3 point range (10x22), and 60% from the line (9x16).

Zach Mager captured scoring honors for the game with 28 points hitting 10x20 from the field and 3x8 from long range.

Jackson Zivac had 12 points and 5 boards.

Mikey McElroy had 10 points and 9 rebounds.

Jack Dignan had 11 points 5 assists and 4 rebounds.

The Cardinals improve to 10-3 on the season and 4-2 in the YAC. Plattsburgh will return to action on Tuesday Jan 21st when they host travel partner Potsdam. Then it's back on the road to the far reaches of the western part of the state to take on the Bengals and Fredonia on the weekend.

The Red Dragons fall to 8-6 overall and 5-2 in the conference. Oneonta continues to enjoy an extended homestand as they host Cortland on Tuesday for the Battle of the Red Dragons, and then welcome in Brockport and Geneso on the weekend. That will be a stretch of 5 straight home games for the Dragons but they will pay for that homestand when they end the season with 5 of their final 8 games on the road. The last 2 conference games they play are at Geneseo and at Brockport. They better hope they don't need a win in that final weekend to make the plaloffs because I don't see one there. They may be 5-2 right now and in 3rd place, but in projecting them out, I think they end up at  best with a 10-8 mark. Personally,  I think it will be 9-9, but it could be as bad as 8-10.       

[magicman]

Geneseo 66 Oswego 62

This game started out evenly and after the first 5+ minutes the Lakers were up 9-8.  Over the next 5 minutes however, Oswego outscored the knights 14 to 4 and suddenly the lead had ballooned to 13 points at 25-12. Still down 13, Geneseo used a pair of Gordon Lyons inside buckets and 2 free throws by Connor Fedge to pull within 7 at 29-22 with 5:30 left in the period. The Lakers would take off again though and 7 points by Brian Sortino, a triple by Kyle Covley and a basket by Daniel Ross gave Oswego its largest lead of the half at 41-26. The Knights scored the last 3 points of the stanza to cut the 15 point deficit down to 12.

The Knights needed something good to happen coming of the break to get back into this game but after 7 minutes had gone by they weren't any further ahead than when the period started as the score stood at 49-35. Enter the law firm of Lyons and Fedge, as the 2 leading scorers for the Knights led a charge that brought Geneseo from 14 down into a 54-53 lead with a 19-4 run. With 4:52 left on the clock it marked the first time the Knight had led since the score was 3-2 in the opening minutes. The lead was short lived though as Brian Sortino got a tip in and was fouled. The 3 point play put the Lakers up 56-54 but it was the last lead they would enjoy. Lyons tied the game with a jumper and after Andy Drescher stole the ball a minute later, Lyons scored again for the lead. The Lakers had their chances but missed a 3 pointer, got it back after a Geneseo turnover, missed a jumper, got the offensive rebound and missed a layup. The Knights grabbed the rebound with 1:46 remaining and called a time out. Twelve seconds later Fedge scored on a layup to make it a 2 possession game at 60-56. Brian Sortino made a pair of free throws for the Lakers with 30 seconds left and Oswego had to foul shortly after the inbounds pass. Andy Drescher made both free throws, Sortino went coast to coast, scored, and the Lakers fouled Fedge with 11 ticks left. He made a pair from the line and Sortino went the length of the court to score once again. Drescher was fouled and he came through in the clutch to make it 66-62. With just 6 seconds left the Lakers were out of time and turned the ball over without another shot. Nice comeback by the Knights in enemy territory.

Gordon Lyons with another double double of 25 points and game high 13 rebounds to lead the Knights in both categories.

Connor Fedge with 16 points 4 rebounds and 4 assists.

Matt Curry had 10 point and 5 rebounds.  Andy Drescher had 7 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals off the bench.

James McKenna had 6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.

The Knights shot 46% from the field (24x 52), 25% from 3 point range (3x12) and 65% from the line (15x23) They had 36 rebounds to 31 for the Lakers and 11 turnovers to 10 for Oswego.

The Lakers shot 40 % from the field (24x59) 27.8% from long range (5x18 and 90% from the stripe (9x10).

Brian Sortino led Oswego and captured scoring honors for the game with 26 points.

Daniel Ross had 12 points,  7 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal.

Kyle Covley had 10 points

Rashawn Powell had 8 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks.

Geneseo improves to 10-2 overall and moves into sole possession of 2nd place in the YAC with a 4-1 record. The Knights are back in action Tuesday when they host Fredonia and then travel east to face New Paltz and Oneonta.

Oswego falls into a 3 way tie for 5th place with Cortland and Buffalo State with a 4-4 record in the YAC, They fall to 10-5 overall and travel east to New Paltz on Tuesday to face the Hawks. Then a week later it's  off in the other direction as they head west to tackle Buffalo State on the 28th.               

[scooterman]

Back to the 18 games YAC schedule discussion. I favor trying to bring all the SUNY teams into an East-West divisional conference and having a playoff at the end. Why have SUNY schools in other conferences? Bring back Morrisville, IT, Purchase and any other school I missed. You could have a 15 game SUNY schedule and 10 non-conference schedule to play these so-called "D3 high level" conferences games. That would allow a Bport and Geneseo to continue their Rochester area Wendy's Tourney, and allow other SUNY schools to participate in their individual local tourneys. Any other suggestions or thoughts on this issue?

[magicman]

Buffalo State 81 Fredonia 74

The Bengals started slow and finished even slower yet in between they scored just enough points to walk out of Steele hall with a W. They let the Blue Devils open up an early 19-10 lead and Fredonia held onto that edge until there was less than 8 minutes left in the half. The boys from Buffalo finally got untracked however and outscored the opposition with a 21 to 5 run that brought them into the lead at 31-24. They increased their advantage to 8 points at 39-31 before the Blue Devils closed the gap to a 39-34 halftime score.

The Bengals continued to let Fredonia hang around and every time they opened up a little daylight the Blue Devils would close to within a  point or two. Finally, halfway through the 2nd period, the Bengals, up by 5 at 53-48, used 5 points from Chris Thompson and 4 free throws from Justin Mitchell to extend their advantage to 12 points, which would be the largest lead of the game. With 8 minutes remaining the Bengals looked to be in firm control of the game as the lead remained in double digits, but just like the beginning of the game, Buffalo State's offense disappeared and the Blue Devils took advantage. Still down by 11 points with 3:23 left in the game, Fredonia ran off the next 7 points and narrowed the gap to 4 points with 1:28 to play. Seconds later the Bengals committed yet another turnover but Fredonia didn't capitalize as they returned the favor with 64 seconds left. They had to foul and the Bengals made 1 of 2 at the line. The Blue Devils needing to come up big on the next possession missed a layup, got the rebound, turned it over, got it back on a steal and turned it over again. They fouled Chris Thompson and he made them both to open up a 7 point lead with 26 seconds left and this one was history.

Justin Mitchell led Buffalo State with 20 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals and a block.

Chris Thompson had 17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals and a block.

Rod Epps had 16 points, 3 rebounds, 4 steals and 1 assist.

Brad Doyley had 8 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds.

Legree Kirkland with 9 points, 8 rebounds and a steal.

Bengals shot 46% from the field, 25% from 3 point range and 73% from the line. They won the battle off the glass 35-25 and had 16 turnovers to 19 for the Blue Devils. Freds shot 51% from the field, 32% from long range and 52 % from the line.

Fredonia had 3 players in double figures led by Tyrone Clark who led all scorers with 24 points. He added 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals.

Eric Zwierlein had 21 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block and 1 assist.

Robert Lyles had 16 points 3 rebounds and 3 assists.

Xavier Mann came off the bench and had 3 points, 3 assists, 3 steals, 2 rebounds and a block.

The Bengals evened their conference record at 3-3 and improved to 7-6 overall. They travel to Brockport on Tuesday, the 21st to face a Golden Eagle team that has won the last 5 meetings. Then they host the North Country contingent of Plattsburgh and Potsdam on the weekend.

Fredonia continues to search for a win in the SUNYAC as they fall to 0-6. They are 3-10 overall. They at least have some company at the bottom of the standings as the Potsdam State Bears are also 0-6. These 2 teams will match up next Friday to see who can break into the win column. With Fredonia meeting Geneseo on the road  this Tuesday, and Potsdam traveling over to Plattsburgh on the same night, I see both clubs still winless when their showdown comes on the 24th.