MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

Another closely contested affair taking place in Oswego as the Lakers have fought back from a 7 point deficit to grab a slim 34-33 lead at the break. Down 27-20 with 7 minutes left in the period the Lakers outscored the Red Dragons by a 14-6 margin the rest of the way.

Kyle Covely with 10 points and Daniel Ross with 9 lead the Lakers.

Lamard Herron with 12 points and Kevin McMahon with 11 to keep Cortland close.

[magicman]

The game at Geneseo is only at halftime but the final buzzer can't come soon enough for the Oneonta Red Dragons as they trail by a 43-15 insurmountable margin. I knew the Knights were going to win this game but I didn't think it would be a monkey stomping.

Here's the kicker....Geneseo's leading scorer and 1st team All Conference selection, Gordon Lyons has a grand total of 2 points. Well I did say in my prediction that Gordon Lyons and company would be too much for Oneonta. The "and company" includes 12 points from Matt Curry, 8 points from Connor Fedge, 8 points from Devon Anderson (yea!!  a Plattsburgh product), 7 points from Andy Drescher, and 6 points from Jordan Jones.

Jack Dignan led Oneonta with 5 points and Mikey McElroy had 4. Zack Mager is playing for the first time in 3 games but was held to 2 point in the period.

[magicman]

Final score. Oswego 69 Cortland 57               I had this as a 72-65 Oswego win so I wasn't too far off.

Oswego pulls away from Cortland and advances to the semifinals with a 69-57 win over the Red Dragons. The teams were locked in another battle remniscent of Saturday's game when the Lakers, ahead 43-41, with 16 minutes left in the game, went on a 15-7 burst to open up a double digit margin at 58-48 with 7 minutes to go. Daniel Ross had 7 of those 15 points and Keith Tyson had 5. That would prove to be too much for the Red Dragons to overcome as they could get no closer than 8 points the rest of the way. Oswego continued to widen the gap and the lead grew to 17 at 69-52 on a 3 point play by Ross and another pair of baskets by Tyson. With 2:19 remaining Oswego was content to run time off the clock and Cortland scored the final 5 points of the game to make it look closer than it was.

Daniel Ross led the Lakers and was the game's high scorer with 24 points. He added 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and a block. Not a bad day at the office. Keith Tyson had 15 points with 7 rebounds and Kyle Covley had 12.

Kevin McMahon in what was probably his final game in a Cortland uniform went out in style with another double-double as he had 16 points and 10 boards. TJ Hefele had 13 points and Lamard herron had 12.

Oswego improves to 17-9 on the season and will meet Brockport in the 2nd semifinal on Friday night.

Cortland falls to 14-12 to end their season. (Unless there's an ECAC game in the near future).   

[magicman]

In what was a romp at halftime has turned into a fairly close contest at Geneseo as the Oneonta players must not have liked what I said about them at halftime.

Down by 28 points at the break the Red Dragons came back and got as close as 68-61 and now trail 73-62 with 1:30 left to play. Good job not caving in as so many teams might have done.

[magicman]

Geneseo State 79 Oneonta State 67

In my prediction I said the final score was going to be 78-68 in favor of Geneseo. The Knights would have looked pretty bad if they had somehow lost this game after leading by 28 points at the half. Looking at that halftime score of 43-15 I didn't see any way in hell how my prediction would come within 15 points on either side of being close. Yet I missed by a single point on each team, and the 79th point by the Knights was a meaningless free throw from a foul that should never have occured.

You have to give credit to the Red Dragons for fighting back and getting the deficit to single digits. Down 68-61 the Knights scored to make it 70-61 and Oneonta had a 3 pointer rim out that would have cut the lead to 6 with 2:51 remaining. The Knights ended the game scoring their final 11 points from the line as they were 11x16 in the final 3 minutes of play.

Geneseo was led by Connor Fedge who grabbed scoring honors with 22 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. Jordan Jones had 14 points, Matt Curry had 12 points and Devon Anderson had 10 points.

Mikey McElroy and Jack Dignan both had 19 points each to lead Oneonta.

Geneseo improves to 21-5 on the year and will meet Plattsburgh State on Friday in the first semifinal game at 6:00 PM at Brockport. The Oswego-Brockport game will follow at 8:00 PM.

Oneonta ends their season with a 12-14 record.

The old axiom that you can't beat a team three times in a season was proven to be an old wives tale tonight as both Oswego and Geneseo recorded their 3rd straight win over Cortland and Oneonta respectively. 

My winning streak has now reached 12 in a row and I'm 21-3 in the last 24 games. Season record in the SUNYAC games was 77-15 for a winning percentage of 83.6%.

[NYHOOPS8]

Plattsburgh/Geneseo seems to be a "win and you're in" matchup for Pool C implications.

[magicman]

Plattsburgh/Geneseo seems to be a "win and you're in" matchup for Pool C implications.

I think they both get in regardless of the outcome of the game. The East Region should get 2 at large bids and the only way that Brockport, Plattsburgh and Geneseo don't make the field is if Oswego wins the SUNYAC tournament. If that happens then the loser of the Plattsburgh-Geneseo game will probably stay home.

I say probably because there would still be an outside chance, depending on how many upsets occur in the conference tournaments, that if Oswego gets the AQ, and Plattsburgh loses to Geneseo, the Cardinals with a 21-5 record along with a 3-4 vRRO record could still get a Pool C bid. If Geneseo loses to Plattsburgh they would be 21-6 with a vRRO record of 2-4 and that also might be good enough to get in. Again, the key factor here is the number of upsets that occur in the conference tournaments. If the top seeds do what's expected of them, the Pool C bids will be more plentiful for the teams like Plattsburgh and Geneseo with solid resumes.       

[Pat Coleman]

They might well get two at-large bids, but it will depend more on the status quo holding up in a bunch of key conferences which would normally be one-bid leagues.

[magicman]

The 3rd week of Regional Rankings has just been released. No changes at the top but Skidmore moves into the rankings and Stevens drops out. NYU moves from 6th to 5th.

East - NCAA data sheet
1 Brockport State 21-3 22-3
2 Plattsburgh State 21-4 21-4
3 Geneseo State 19-5 20-5
4 Hobart 19-6 19-6
5 NYU 16-8 16-8
6 Skidmore 16-9 16-9

Here's the link to the complete list:

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

[Cards7580]

Brockport's John Ivy is out for the season with an injury

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/college/2014/02/25/john-ivy-brockport-basketball-knee-injury/5814531/

[NYHOOPS8]

I think its safe to assume that Brockport and Plattsburgh are in regardless what happens in their next game. Geneseo may need to win to cement an at-large bid. No one else in the East should be a threat to overtake these 3 teams so it looks like the SUNYAC 3 team entry into the NCAA's looks good!

[scooterman]

It should be a very competitive weekend at Bport. I like Pburg over Geneseo by 4 pts as the uptempo will overtake the methodical G-Boys. They are both very well coached teams, but I give the edge to Coach Curle. The Eagles are "all in" and Poison Ivy will be there in heart and spirit; so I like their chances against the Lakers(by 6). Hopefully they are draining the 3ptrs at home with Bell, White and Lee. B. Caruthers will lead them to a SUNYAC championship!!!! Good luck, Coach Dunne and my beloved Eagles!!!!

[magicman]

SUNYAC Semifinals today.

#3 Geneseo State   vs   #2 Plattsburgh State  @ Brockport  6:00 PM

These 2 teams split their regular season meetings with each one winning on their home court. Tonight is the rubber match, with the winner advancing to the SUNYAC title game and a chance to earn the automatic NCAA bid tomorrow. A week ago their was no doubt in my mind about my prediction for this game. I was all over the Cardinals. The oddsmakers have listed Plattsburgh as a 4 point favorite. However, the oddsmakers don't know what I do, and if they did I believe Geneseo would be favored to win this game. In fact the point spread should have the Knights listed as a 7 point favorite. The Cardinals, unfortunately, will not be playing this game with a full deck. Several key components that made this team as strong as they've been all year will be missing in tonight's contest. Whether the Cardinals can overcome these losses remains to be seen. In order for Plattsburgh to pull out a win here they will need contributions from players that need to step up and accept this challenge. It's one thing to do that in a regular season game against a middle of the pack team, it's quite a different story to do so against one of the top teams, not only in the conference, but in the country. Both teams have an impressive resume and it's entirely possible that both will make the NCAA field even if they don't win the automatic bid. But depending on an at large invitation can be dicey, so a sure thing is what each team is shooting for. I think the Knights have the upper hand here but I obviously can't pick them to beat my Cardinals. I'm hoping the boys can reach deep down and pull some magic out of a hat. I'll even lend them mine to do so.   Plattsburgh wins this one...76-73.



#4 Oswego State  at #1 Brockport State  8:00 PM

The Lakers are looking to make it two in a row over the conference leaders. And the Golden Eagles will have to play without their star John Ivy. Brockport is ranked #16 in the country for a reason though and a large part of their success is the depth that this team has. No club can lose a player like Ivy and not feel it. However, Brockport's depth can lessen the loss and that factor was on display last weekend when a pair of first year players made major contributions, as the Golden Eagles got a feel for what life without their All-American would be like. Brockport doesn't have to win this game to secure a bid in the NCAA tournament. It might secure a home playoff game for the NCAA tournament if they win the automatic bid though, so the Golden Eagles have a lot to play for. Hosting a pod of 4 teams would give the fans of the Green and Gold a chance for 2 more home games and there's nothing like home games in March.

Oswego has no illusions. It's win or go home for the Lakers, as they have no chance to go dancing, unless they secure the automatic bid that goes to the tournament champion. Beating the Golden Eagles twice in a row and doing it this time in Brockport is a tall order. The oddsmakers have made Brockport a solid 12 point favorite, but again I don't think the men that make the spread realize that Brockport is missing their star. I think that 12 points is too many but I do think that Oswego's season will end tonight. I see Brockport taking this one by an 81-74 final score.                   

[Bengalsrule]

2 big ones on tap tonight. The winners, in all likely hood, go to the dance...and maybe a loser too.

B Port vs Oswego. I watched the last match up between the 2 online  and surprisingly enough the Lakers handled the golden eagles before and after Ivy went down (8 mins left in the 2nd half). They were up by 12 at halftime. The problem for the Golden eagles is that they couldn't harass Ross into turning over the ball. he was the General on the court and no matter what Carruthers, Ivy, White or bell did , he couldn't be deterred (spell-check anyone?).

This time around, Brockport is going into the game knowing that they don't have the "poison 1" (and the clear favorite for player of the year!!). Who will step up?. Will it be freshman Clifton Lyerly, the slasher? Or freshman Aaron White (Canisius high, my Alma mater) doing what he did last game (21 points)? What about Bobby "the bomber" Bell, who may be playing in his last game as a Golden eagle? Can senior Patrick Coyle get a triple double or can Matt Lee... hit the 3? (that rhymes). One thing is for sure. Brockport is deep. And they should win by at least 3!

The Cards vs. the Blue knights....ooowwwweee. This 1 is gonna be special! Big question is whether or not Shamoy has recovered from his injury vs the BENGALS (I hate thinking about that game)? If so and everyone else is ready to go then I see the Cards as a 5 point favorite. With manning, Correa (that kid is dangerous), Fields, Perez and McIntosh, Plattsburgh looks like not only the winner tonight but league champs tomorrow. undoubtedly Gordon Lyons (Canisuis High, my Alma mater) is gonna be a handful for Fields and Perez!Plus Fedge and Decker could cause problems from beyond the arc, but all things being equal I like the Cards in this 1 to win by 5. I believe that both teams get in the dance regardless of what happens although Geneseo probably could use the win more than Plattsburgh!

The 'Yac is back..and ready to stack...the NCAA tourney....with the SUNYAC top 3! (yes magicman...that does rhyme!!)

[7express]

Good luck to your Cardinals tonight Magic!