MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

Buffalo State game was late tipping off and then neither team could figure out how to put the ball through the hoop. The first score in the game took over four minutes of playing time before someone made a basket. Together the 2 teams missed the first 15 shots taken before Mont Alto finally put one in. The Bengals followed with their initial basket 18 seconds later and the teams finally seemed to get their offenses in gear, although the shooting percentages still weren't very good. It was a back and forth game for much of the first period and the score was tied at 23 with 3:11 remaining. Rod Epps then scored 6 straight points on a hoop and harm play followed by a 3 pointer 20 seconds later and Buff State grabbed the lead for good. Chris Cartwright (from out of the blue comes a former Bengal) then gets an old fashioned 3 point play and the Bengals stretch their lead to 36-29 when Leon Moise hits a layup with 1 second left on the clock before the half. 


Rod Epps led the Bengals with 10 points. Lovell Smith had 8 and Jordan Glover had 5 points.

Siele Johnson scored 11 to lead the Lions.


Final score  Buffalo State 78 Penn State Mont Alto 64. 

That was fairly close to my prediction of 76-69 Bengals. Buff State picked off a pass with 14 second left and the Bengal player, Larry Rivers was fouled and made both free throws, otherwise my 76 points would have been right on.

Bengals were a little sluggish coming out for the 2nd half and their 7 point lead quickly dwindled down to 2. However in the span of 46 seconds they quickly built the lead back to a double digit margin on the strength of a pair of Lovell Smith layups followed by a Chris Cartwright layup and a  Cartwright 3 pointer. A minute later Cartwright was fouled on a 3 point attempt and he stepped to the line and buried all 3 free throws and just like that the lead was 48-34 with 14:44 left to play. Seconds later Cartwright scored again to make it 50-34 and the Bengals had ripped off 14 unanswered points, the last ten by Cartwright, to open up their largest lead of the game. The Lions were still down 59-44 with 9:40 left to play when they made another charge to get back into the game. A 10-1 outburst by Mont Alto made it a 2 possession game at 60-54 with 6 minutes left to play, but the Bengals would have none of that as Larry Rivers hit 3 inside buckets and Rod Epps made two baskets to give Buff State a double digit lead once again at 72-61 with only 1:19 on the clock. The Bengals cruised to the finish line from there.

Chris Cartwright played in his first game in a Bengal uniform since March 11th 2011, when Buffalo State played St Mary's (Md) in the Sweet 16. He didn't look like he's been away from the game all that long as he led the Bengals with 17 points. Rod Epps and Lovell Smith both scored 14 points, while Larry Rivers was the 4th Bengal player in double figures with 12. Smith led Buffalo State with 10 rebounds which gave him a double-double for the night. Cartwright added 4 assists and 3 steals.

Mont Alto was led by Jeremiah Mitchell with 14 points. Siele Johnson and Jerome Evans both had 12 points.



Buffalo State will now face off against the host Montclair State Red Hawks on Sunday afternoon in the Championship game at 3:00 PM.

The point spread favors Montclair State by 4 points and if the Bengals hope to pull off a mild upset here then they will have to shoot the ball a heck of a lot better than they did today. They were 28x82 from the field (34.1%) and only 3x23 from the 3 point line (a pitiful 13.0%). They were 19x29 from the free throw line. (65.5%) The 3 best 3 point shooters on the team were all 1x7 so maybe tomorrow the law  of averages will come into play and they will all go 4x7 from long distance. Regardless, they will be playing better competition and it won't be on a neutral court. Bengals will need their "A" game on Sunday. Hope they have it because I'm picking them to win. I think it could be a track meet and the final will be something like:

Buffalo State 89 Montclair State 83.     


 

   

[magicman]

In addition to the Buffalo State at Montclair State game today there is one other SUNYAC team in action.


Oswego State vs Haverford at Daytona Beach, Florida (Embry-Riddle)  8:00 PM

The 5-2 Lakers (should be 7-0) take on a team from the Centennial Conference that has only had one winning season in the past 7 years and that came 4 years ago in 2010-11 when the Fords were 14-12. The team is off to a 3-5 start this year and was beaten earlier in the season by RIT 71-62.  RIT came in 8th place in the recent Wendy's tournament so that gives me some sort of idea of where Haverford might fit if they were in the East Region. Not very high up on the totem pole. The oddsmakers have made Oswego a 9 point favorite in this one. I'll be surprised if the Fords can keep it that close. They don't seem to have much height and Oswego should control the boards. Both teams coming off  layoffs of more than 2 weeks. Could be a sloppy game and the Lakers have a tendency to play down to the level of their opponents (see losses to Elmira and Clarkson and a 1 point win over Fredonia as proof).  Still, I see the Lakers winning this one by an 80-67 final score. And it could be worse.         

[Bengalsrule]

Good prediction there Magicman. Bengals win by 5! Shouldn't have been that close but a win is a win.  You are right about Chris Cartwright ( Santa was good to the Bengals this year). He has picked up where he left off in March of 2011.  21 2nd half points ( MVP of tourney) was the difference in the 2nd half. Jordan Glover - All tourney (  13 pts, 15 boards, missed triple double by 1 assist) and Rod Epps - All tourney was on fire in the first 6 mins of the game ( 16 pts ,finished with 22) we're the difference makers.

Chris Thompson chipped in with 9 pts and 5 boards after an invisible first half. Larry Rivers nearly duplicated that effort with 8 and 4. Nothing but Yac games left but if feels good to close out 2014 with 2 wins on the road.

[magicman]

Just got a score that shows Buffalo State defeating Montclair State by an 85-80 score. That's fairly close to the 89-83 final I thought might happen.

The Bengals were clearly the best team in this tournament. The consolation match was won by the team that the Bengals defeated yesterday as Penn State Mont Alto beat John Jay College 61-60.

I started typing this post around 5:45 when I got a score off of the Montclair State website. I was waiting to see if they were going to post a box score and then got sidetracked with supper.

I see my Bengal friend came on and gave us some stats.



Good job Champ, nice to see the Bengals end 2014 with a couple of W's. Chris Cartwright's return could be a big lift in conference play for Buffalo State. Kind of unfair that Oswego and Cortland will only see a Bengals team with him on it only once, while the rest of us have to face Buff State with Cartwright twice. I may have to lodge a protest with the Commissioner about that. 

And one more thing, Bengalsrule...it's not nice to keep secrets from the magicman. I know, that you knew, that Cartwright was coming back, yet nary a peep from you to inform me of that major gamechanging decision.   You should be ashamed of yourself.

And one more, one more thing....Is this Cartwright's last semester of eligibility?

By the way...the penalty for keeping me in the dark about Cartwright will be forthcoming and will probably be imposed on January 30th when Buffalo State comes to Plattsburgh.  Just wanted you to be aware of that.    

[Bengalsrule]

Oh Magic one.  I thought I had mentioned back in November that Santa had some gifts in store for my BENGALS. And Santa came thru...big time (I love that guy). I must admit, myBENGALScould use all the extra help. I hope that you an forgive me for missing the fact  that Santa had something special for us. But Santa doesn't like it when people know, before Xmas, what Santa has planned for them
And none of us want to offend Santa!

[magicman]

Oswego State defeats Haverford College 82-43. I had the Lakers score fairly close with my 80-67 prediction but didn't think the Fords would put up such a pitiful amount of points.

Lakers were actually in a close game for about the first 12 minutes or so and the Fords managed to gain a 12-8 lead but Oswego went on a 15-3 run that essentially put the game away. They settled for a 34-25 halftime lead that quickly grew larger as the next period opened up. Five minutes into the period the lead was 20 points, that soon became 30 and ended up at 39. Coach Leone was able to get every one into the game early and nearly everyone got into the scoring action.

The Lakers' Brian Sortino led all scorers with 17 points, 3 assists and 2 steals. Walter Sampson was next with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Mark Candelario had a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds in only 17 minutes of court time. He was a perfect 5 for 5 from the field. Pat Caruso had 8 points in 8 minutes while Louis Avellino had 5 points and 2 rebounds in just 9 minutes.

Lakers shot 34x61 (55.7%) from the field which included 9x22 from long distance (40.9%). As I mentioned yesterday, Oswego's height advantage, would prove to be a problem for Haverford and it was as the Fords were beaten off the boards by a 45-32 margin. Oswego's length also affected their shooting abilities as the Ford's only managed to knock down 16x61 (26.2%) of their shots from the field. They were even worse from downtown as they only hit 2 of 23 shots from beyond the arc (8.7%) No wonder they only scored 43 points. The Lakers made 34 baskets and 24 of those field goals were from an assist. Ian Shupp led the team with 5 dimes to go with his 5 points.

Gibby Graves was the only Haverford player to score in double figures with 11 points.

Oswego State improves to 6-2 and will play their last remaining out of conference game this evening against the Loras College Duhawks at 8:00 Pm also in Daytona Beach.

Loras College is a member of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and they also played yesterday in Daytona beach as they defeated Lebanon Valley 72-69. They have a 4-5 record and will enter the game as a 6 point underdog according to the oddsmakers. Defense doesn't seem to be a strong point for the Duhawks as they give up an average of 79.1 ppg. That figure rises to almost 84 ppg when you look at just their losses. I think the Lakers will put a big number up as well.

Final score Oswego 85 Loras 74       

[magicman]

Oswego State loses to Loras College 63-47.

Another headshaking loss by the Lakers to a team that they should have beaten. Oswego was down 27-21 at the half but was outscored by a 21-6 margin in the first 9 minutes of the 2nd period to fall behind by a 48-27 score. It was never close after that. Lakers with a bad night shooting in all 3 areas. They got hammered on the boards as well by a 47-29 margin. Rashawn Powell with 14 points and Kyle Covely with 10 points led Oswego in the scoring column.

Oswego now 6-3 when they should be 9-0. Hard to figure out which Laker team is going to show up this year. 

Oswego is back in action on Tuesday January 6th when they host Oneonta State in a matchup of 2 teams tied for first place in the conference. Game time is set for 5:30 PM. 

[magicman]

1 game on tap today and it's the game of the week as the Plattsburgh State Cardinals travels to New Hampshire to take on the Undefeated (8-0) Owls of Keene State.

Last year these two teams met in Plattsburgh and the Cardinals put a licking on the Owls as they won by a score of 109-76. Keene State was without the services of their leading scorer Tom Doyle in that game but the senior forward's back and is once again leading the Owls with a 19.0 ppg average. Also returning is  junior Nate Howard their 7 foot center who is averaging 15 ppg. They also have an excellent point guard in sophomore Lucas Hammel who is averaging 6 points and 7 assists per game.

Plattsburgh is coming off a 3 week layoff and will be looking to get rid of the sour taste that's been in their mouth since a 2 point overtime loss to Oneonta State back on December 6th. The odds makers have made the Cardinals a slim 2 point road favorite which I find a little surprising since Keene is unbeaten and playing at home. I hope they are right as I'm picking my Caerdinals to win this one by a 79-74 final score.

The games is tipping off as I finish typing this. Here's a link to the webcast: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/keene/portal.htm?eventId=179628 

[magicman]

Plattsburgh leads Keene State 45-33 at the half. Plattsburgh's point guard Mike Mitchell leads all scorers  with 11 points and 6 assists.

[magicman]

Plattsburgh State defeats Keene State 99-94 as they hand the Owls their first loss of the season.

[Bengalsrule]

Congrats on a quality win for the Cards and the 'Yac! Keene is currently ranked 51st in D3 (according to Massey) and the Little East is the 8th ranked conference in D3! Nuff said!

[AllStar]

Rare post on this board, but the Plattsburgh/Keene game turned out to be a pretty good one in the end (although certainly not the prettiest for either side I must say).  Good luck to your Cardinals as the season progresses, magicman.  Happy New Year as well.

[magicman]

Rare post on this board, but the Plattsburgh/Keene game turned out to be a pretty good one in the end (although certainly not the prettiest for either side I must say).  Good luck to your Cardinals as the season progresses, magicman.  Happy New Year as well.

Thanks for the well wishes AllStar and a Happy New Year to you. The Middlebury-Plattsburgh game coming up on Tuesday should be another excellent contest. Check out this link on Tuesday for an excellent webcast of the game. Gametime is 5:30 PM.

http://nsnsports.net/colleges/plattsburgh-state/

It's one of the best in the country. Good quality video, great announcers, even instant replay from time to time. It's done by an outside company with professional people that have no affiliation with the school. You don't end up with one of those poor quality feeds that have biased, terrible announcers, that never tell you the score or how much time is left.

By the way do you have a favorite team? I know you are partial to the Little East but don't know which school you root for. Do you live in a city where an LEC school is located?   

[magicman]

Well the Cardinals welcomed in the New Year by defeating Keene State by a 99-94 final score. I predicted the Cardinals would win by a 79-74 final score. I had the margin of victory right, I was just 20 points shy on each team's total. I didn't think it would be a track meet and thought that Keene State might not want to run with the Cards, after getting pounded last year in Plattsburgh 109-76. I'm guessing they saw film of the Plattsburgh-Western Connecticut game and decided to mimic what the Colonials did in that game. What they didn't see on that game film was an absent point guard, Mike Mitchell.  So the Cardinals managed to split their 2 games with the LEC conference this year as they suffered the narrow loss at Western Connecticut. Both games against the LEC teams were on the road and both teams were unbeaten at the time the games were played. It's nice to earn at least a split.

I still maintain that if Plattsburgh had played that game at Western with their point guard, Mitchell, we would have won. Mike missed that game, I think because of the flu bug, and we didn't handle the press as well as we should have. However, the Owls found out what a healthy Mike Mitchell can do, as he was the leading scorer in the game Wednesday night with 22 points, a new career high. He was 4x8 from the field and 13x16 from the line. He also added 8 assists, 2 rebounds and a steal.

This game also featured a matchup of big men as Keene brought 7 footer Nate Howard and the Cardinals countered with 6'6" Reggie Williams. Williams was clearly the winner of this battle as he outscored Keene's center 22 points to 11, to tie Mitchell for game scoring honors. He also had 10 rebounds to 8 for Howard and Williams had 4 blocks to only 1 for his counterpart. Reggie hit 11 of his 16 attempts from the field. Howard was 5 for 18. Williams just missed tying his career high of 24 points but did wind up with his 3rd double-double of the season. He is now the Cardinals leading scorer on the season, with 12.1 ppg, as well as their leading rebounder with 8.3 rpg.

Eddie Correa provided some timely long distance shots last night as he totaled 19 points and had 5 three pointers. Overall he was 7 of 10 from the field and 5 of 7 from downtown. It seemed like every time Keene State made a move to close the gap, Correa was there with another long bomb. Jordan Moody provided a big lift off the bench with 12 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in 19 minutes of floor time. Ezra Hodgson was a fifth Cardinal in double figures with 10 points and he tied Williams with a team high 10 rebounds to get his double-double as well. Xavier Thomas just missed double digits with 9 points.

The Cardinals were down early in this game 3-0 but a Xavier Thomas layup and Correa's first 3 pointer made it 5-3 and Plattsburgh was never headed. Tied at 7 apiece, the Cardinals went on a 17-5 explosion that started with a 3 pointer by Hodgson and ended with a 3 pointer by Mitchell. Kind of fitting that these two, who are the only players on Plattsburgh State's roster  that come from the state of New Hampshire, were instrumental in their win tonight, in the Granite State. Hopefully they had a bunch of their hometown friends and relatives on hand to see their heroics. The Cardinals were now up 24-12 and they maintained that margin through halftime to go into the break up 45-33.

Keene State hung with the Cardinals and managed to cut the deficit to 54-48 with a little over five minutes gone in the 2nd period. Eddie Correa promptly buried a 3 pointer to build the lead back to 9 points. Two minutes later the Owls had narrowed the lead to 5 points at 57-52, but once again Correa, in the span of 23 seconds, hit a jumper, and after a Reggie Williams steal, nailed another one of his long range bombs. Williams then made back to back layups 29 seconds apart and the Cards had their largest lead of the game at 66-52. Williams continued his inside assault as he scored 5 more baskets over the next 5 minutes. He ended up  scoring 14 of the Cardinals' 20 points as they went from a total of 62 to 82 in a span of 6:48.

The Owls chipped away at the double digit lead and once more got to within 6 points, 82-76 on a Jaquel Edwards layup with 3:53 left to play. Edwards missed a chance for a 3 point play as he couldn't knock down the ensuing free throw.  The Cards came down and got, you guessed it, another 3 pointer from Correa to give them some more breathing room. It would be the last field goal Plattsburgh would make as the Owls started the foul parade and the Cardinals would score their final 14 points from the line, hitting 14 of 20 attempts.       

The Cardinals shot the rock a little better than Keene did and the Owls had a 51-43 edge in rebounding. Plattsburgh had 15 turnovers to 21 for the Owls.

Plattsburgh shooting stats:    From the field 32-67  47.8%   3 pointers 8-18  44.4%   free throws  27-41  65.9%
Keene State shooting stats:   From the field 33-77  42.9%   3 pointers 7-19  36.8%   free throws  21-31  67.7% 

Keene State was led by 2 players off the bench that both managed to get double-doubles. Jaquel Edwards, who normally starts, instead came off the bench today but still logged more court time than anyone else on the Keene State team with 29 minutes. He scored 12 points and had a game high 13 rebounds. Jeff Lunn led the Owls in the scoring department with 16 points and grabbed 12 boards. Paul Emdin and Nate Howard both had 11 points, while Tom Doyle and Dizel Wright each scored 10 markers.

Plattsburgh State improves to 6-2 overall (1-1 in the YAC) and will play their final non-conference game of the season when they host the undefeated Middlebury College Panthers on Tuesday, January 6th at 5:30 PM. That will prove to be another very entertaining contest and I encourage fans to watch it online if they can't make the game in person. It's an excellent webcast. One of the best in the country.

Here's the link to the Plattsburgh-Middlebury webcast:   http://nsnsports.net/colleges/plattsburgh-state/
               

[AllStar]

Rare post on this board, but the Plattsburgh/Keene game turned out to be a pretty good one in the end (although certainly not the prettiest for either side I must say).  Good luck to your Cardinals as the season progresses, magicman.  Happy New Year as well.

Thanks for the well wishes AllStar and a Happy New Year to you. The Middlebury-Plattsburgh game coming up on Tuesday should be another excellent contest. Check out this link on Tuesday for an excellent webcast of the game. Gametime is 5:30 PM.

http://nsnsports.net/colleges/plattsburgh-state/

It's one of the best in the country. Good quality video, great announcers, even instant replay from time to time. It's done by an outside company with professional people that have no affiliation with the school. You don't end up with one of those poor quality feeds that have biased, terrible announcers, that never tell you the score or how much time is left.

By the way do you have a favorite team? I know you are partial to the Little East but don't know which school you root for. Do you live in a city where an LEC school is located?   

Yes, I follow Keene quite a bit so I root for them.  They are (I hope) improving from some down years recently.  It seemed you were surprised with Plattsburgh being favored in the game yesterday, but I wasn't.  Not after what happened last year and the fact that the Owls haven't played a very tough schedule yet (Springfield was probably the best team they had played before yesterday).  With the exception of last years disaster (from my point of view), the other 3 games in the series vs. Plattsburgh have been entertaining.  The Owls won 101-100 in overtime several years back, and the Cardinals took the matchup two years ago 70-64 and this one 99-94.  We shall see what happens.  There is no question Keene has to get better.  I'll be sure to follow that Plattsburgh/Middlebury game next week.  The Cardinals stuffed them last year if I remember correctly.