MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[Bengalsrule]

Men's Basketball Player of the Week

Epps
Roderick Epps, Buffalo State
Uniondale, NY / Uniondale
View Full Bio

Averaged 23.3 points and added 11 rebounds, eight assists and four steals. Epps netted 25 points in a win over Pine Manor on Tuesday, then scored 15 in a victory at Brockport on Friday, and then scored a season-high 30 points to go with four assists and two steals in a dramatic 87-86 win at Geneseo on Saturday. Epps moved into seventh in school history with 1,306 career points.

   I couldn't be happier for this kid. Rod has worked on his game and created an all around game that is on par with anyone in the 'Yac. (IMHO). 2nd in ft%, 4th in scoring, 10th in FG % (top 9 are bigs) and 12 in 3 ptrs made per game. You will also see his name in the rebounding and steals category of 'Yac stats!! He and Jordan Glover ( SUNYAC's "Mr Consistent" ...thats right magicman, I'm creating a new 'Yac award) who is 4th in the 'Yac in steals, 10 in 3 ptrs per game and 12th in assists and Chris Cartwright who is  scoring 15 pts a game (would be good for 9th in SUNYAC if he was recognized),  4.5 assists per game ( would be good for 3rd in 'Yac) and 2.7  3 ptrs per game (also good for 3rd in the 'Yac). For some reason Cartwright's numbers have not been listed by SUNYAC. And dont tell me its because he has only played 8 games ( I know that's what you were thinking Magicman ). Max Pierce -Fredonia and Greg Torchon - Potsdam have only played 8 games but you can find their stats listed on the SUNYAC "leaders " board. I guess they just have missed Chris. Understandable 


   I can't wait till "Mr. Consistent" Lovell Smith rejoins the line up this week (WHO 6 MINS INTO THE GAME, got hit in the face/eye vs Geneseo Saturday and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance). Oh and there was NO FOUL CALLED when hit got hit although play had to be stopped. Add a Chris Thompson, who this past Saturday went toe to toe with Pre - Season All American Gordon Lyons and stood tall ( 25 pts on 10/13 shooting and 9 boards vs Lyons 18 pts/17 rebs), and Larry Rivers 11 pts 7.5 boards over the past 4 games and the 3rd most effective pt gd in the 'Yac, Derrick Fernandez, 4.1 assists per game and a 1.8 turnover/assist ratio,  to the mix and the BENGALS future looks bright.

6-2 since Xmas, and Cartwright joining the BENGALS (thank you Santa), makes me as optimistic as can be. Fredonia is ahead tonight and they always get up for my beloved BENGALS. No predictions (that's the magic 1's category) however I will predict that the boys will play hard!!

Go BENGALS!!!!


I LOVE THOSE GUYS!!!

[magicman]

Let's see what the crystal ball makes of the games on tap for today.

Potsdam State  at  Plattsburgh State        5:30 PM

The battle for Northern New York has been a one sided affair for the past 4 years as the Cardinals are 7-1 in those games.   Plattsburgh holds a 10-3 edge dating back to the 2006-07 season. Plattsburgh is coming off a Jekyll and Hyde weekend, after beating conference leader Oswego on Friday and dropping an overtime decision to 6th place (at the time) Cortland on Saturday. Potsdam continues to struggle and will be hard pressed to stay in this game tonight. The oddsmakers have made the Cardinals an 18 point home favorite and it's hard to argue against that margin. The Bears have lost 3 of their last 4 road games by 27 points to Buff State, 36 points to John Carroll, and 19 points to Hilbert. Only a win at Fredonia, who is winless against D3 teams, breaks up that stretch of futility. Tonight Coach Tom Curle goes for his 205th win as the coach of Plattsburgh State, which would make him the all time leader in wins at Plattsburgh State, surpassing the 204 wins that Joe Jastrube earned from 1953 through 1969.  Cardinals' senior guard Shamoy McIntosh looks to become the 13th Plattsburgh State player to score 1000 points for his career. He needs 12 points to do so.  I think the Cardinals win this one 83-62 and Coach Curle gets that record breaking win.         


Geneseo State   at     Cortland State        5:30 PM   Co-featured game of the night

Cortland coming off a big win at Plattsburgh and the Knights coming off a disappointing home loss to Buffalo State. The oddsmakers give the edge to the Red Dragons in this matchup by a 3 point margin. Knights have the better inside game while Cortland has the better guard play. Gordon Lyons can only do so much. I'll take the Red Dragons in this one by a 71-66 final.



Brockport State    at    Oswego State        5:30 PM       Co-featured game of the night

Hard to predict a winner in this one. Brockport lost an overtime decision to the Lakers just a week ago. Lakers gave up a 9 point lead with under 2 minutes to play and the game went to bonus basketball where Oswego finally secured the victory. Point spread has the Lakers favored by 5 points in this one.  Brockport was missing starter Clifton Lyerly in that game. He's back and I'm taking the Golden Eagles, in a revenge motivated return matchup, to score a mild upset here. Plus I need the Lakers to suffer another loss and will be rooting hard for Brockport. Golden Eagles 78 Oswego 75.



Buffalo State    at    Fredonia State        5:30 PM

Bengals coming off a 2 win road weekend and have to be feeling good about themselves. A win tonight could put them back into a playoff position as they have rebounded from an 0-3 YAC start to improve to 3-4. Fredonia shouldn't be much of an obstacle for the Bengals to improve to .500 in the conference. Oddsmakers have installed them as 11 point favorites but I think they win by a bigger margin than that.  Final score should be something like Buffalo St. 85 Fredonia 67.

[magicman]

Final scores from tonight's games.

Plattsburgh State 83 Potsdam state 60    I just missed this one with my prediction of a Plattsburgh 83-62 win.

Cortland State 70 Geneseo State 60    I had  Cortland winning by a 71-66 score so I wasn't too far off.

Buffalo State 78  Fredonia state 61    My guess had the Bengals winning by an 85-67 margin. Both teams a bit shy of my score.

Oswego State 66 Brockport State 51   I was hoping for the upset here with my forecast of a 78-75 Brockport victory, but Oswego would have none of that. The Lakers turned a halftime deadlock into a solid win by outscoring the Eagles 39-24 in the 2nd half.                                                                                   

[magicman]

Plattsburgh State 83    Potsdam State 60

This game was competitive for most of the first half and the Bears Rishawd Hendricks hit a jumper with 10:11 left in the period to tie the score at 13 apiece. Xavier Thomas then went to work for the Cardinals as he had a monster dunk, to give Plattsburgh a lead they would never surrender. The Cardinals followed that dunk by Thomas with a basket that was tipped in by a Potsdam player when several hands were reaching for a rebound of a missed Plattsburgh field goal attempt. Kind of like an "own goal" in soccer but called a "wrong basket" in basketball. I thought the basket would be credited to Reggie Williams as he was the closest Cardinal player to the play and was one of the arms reaching for the rebound but the basket was credited to the "Team". Thomas scored again for Plattsburgh on their next trip down the court to make it a 6 point lead and after Tom Graf scored for the Bears, Thomas buried a 3 pointer to bump the lead to 7 points. Kyle Richardson then nailed another 3 pointer a minute later to give the Cardinals their first double digit lead of the game with 7:29 to play in the half. Richardson would score on a fastbreak a short time later to give Plattsburgh their largest lead of the opening stanza at 32-18. The Bears managed to close the gap to a 10 point deficit of 40-30 at the break.

Whatever hopes the Bears had of springing an upset in this game quickly disappeared as the 2nd half started with the Cardinals raining 3 pointers down on the Bears. Ezra Hodgson opened the period with a deep 3 ball and after the Bears Zac Adams scored on a nice inside move, Hodgson came down and buried another triple. The Bears misfired on their next possession and Eddie Correa nailed a three pointer, his third of the night, and the Cards had opened up a 17 point lead. Two free throws by Shamoy McIntosh, a layup by Reggie Williams along with 2 more free throws by Jordan Moody and Hodgson gave the Cards a 15-2 run to open the period. The lead had grown from 10 to 23 and the party to celebrate Coach Tom Curle's 205th win as the Cardinals' coach had begun. Curle, in his 11th season, has now amassed more wins than anyone else in the history of Plattsburgh State Men's basketball. With 10 minutes to go in the game Xavier Thomas converted an old fashioned 3 point play to extend the lead to 27 points. Curle began substituting freely at that point as 12 different players broke into the scoring column.

The only downer on the night for Plattsburgh was the fact that Shamoy McIntosh, needing 12 points to total 1000 career points, was injured early in the 2nd half and had to sit out the remainder of the game. He had scored 6 points at the time and the home fans were denied the pleasure of seeing him hit that milestone. I spoke with Shamoy shortly after he left the game. He assured me that he was fine and would be able to play this weekend. The Cardinals hit the road for games at Geneseo, then Brockport and his 1000th point will be scored away from home.

Xavier Thomas was the game's high scorer tonight as he has 14 points (5x7 fg, 2x3 3's, 2x3 ft) and 5 rebounds in just 11 minutes of court time. Ezra Hodgson scored 12 points (3x6 fg, 2x3 3's, 4x5 ft) and 3 rebounds. Eddie Correa had 3 long balls for a total 9 points and added 5 rebounds. Jordan Moody also had 2 triples for a total of 8 points. Jordan also had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals as he continues to be one of the best players in the conference at coming off the bench as the 6th man. Big man Reggie Williams, who has been on quite a tear recently, was fairly quiet tonight as the team didn't give him many chances. He had 6 points, a game high 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists and a steal for a good all around evening in 25 minutes on the floor. Kyle Richardson also had a nice stat line of 6 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, an assist and a block.  Point Guard Mike Mitchell didn't score tonight but did have 6 assists with no turnovers. Freshmen Magic Grigg and Tyler Coppin-Carter both scored their first points in a Cardinal uniform. Grigg had 6 points on 3x3 shooting along with 4 rebounds and Coppin-Carter had 4 points.

Plattsburgh outshot the Bears from the field 43.8% (28x64) to 32,2% (19x59) and from long range 40.7% (11x27) to 25.0% (6x24). Potsdam was better from the line hitting 16x18 for 88.9% to 14x22 (63.6%) for Plattsburgh. The Cardinals dominated the glass with 45 rebounds to 33 for Potsdam and both teams had 13 turnovers.

Potsdam was led by Zac Adams with 13 points (4x11 fg, 1x3 3's, 4x4 ft) and a team high 5 rebounds. Kyle Santoro had 9 points all on 9x10 shooting from the free throw line. He added 4 rebounds 3 assists and a steal. Tariq McIntyre added 6 points, 2 assists, a block and tied Adams with 5 rebounds. Joe Estramonte had 6 points, 3 rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Plattsburgh improves to 10-4 overall and 5-2 in conference play. They take over sole possession of 2nd place and will try and solidify that position as they travel to Geneseo on Friday at 5:30 and Brockport on Saturday at 2 PM.

Potsdam falls to 2-11 overall and 1-6 in the YAC. They will make the same trip west as the Cardinals this weekend.                   

[amh63]

Magicman....just to alert you that I saw your Cardinals on my flatscreen TV the other night....in HD no less.   Read your post on the CAC board....something wrt to a WBB player up in Maine???  Agreed that the player is good.....but promo on the MBB board!
Does Coach Curle aware of your efforts?

[magicman]

Magicman....just to alert you that I saw your Cardinals on my flatscreen TV the other night....in HD no less.   Read your post on the CAC board....something wrt to a WBB player up in Maine???  Agreed that the player is good.....but promo on the MBB board!
Does Coach Curle aware of your efforts?

I saw where your sons showed up to help the "old man" hook up his computer to his big flat screen TV. Now if you could only send them to Plattsburgh to do the same for me. 

We were wondering where you have been for the past week. I've been scrambling trying to find your phone number which I seem to have misplaced. I was going to call Mrs. amh63 and make sure you were alright. Vandy, grabtherim, and myself were afraid something had happened to you. It's certainly not like you to disappear for 7 days during the height of the hoops season. I must reprimand you for taking a break from the boards without first informing us of your intent to do so. You gave us a scare. Please don't do that again!! OK reprimand over.....please PM me your phone number as I'm not sure where I've placed the slip of paper I had written it down on.

You watched my Cardinals against Potsdam on Tuesday night I'm assuming. That was Coach Curle's big night. And yes I told him I'm bragging about his daughter's exploits on the Women's NESCAC board. Only a couple of times a year though. The next two years should be very good ones for her as she keeps getting better and better.

I was watching your LJ's play Williams on Wednesday night. Williams led for most of the game and at one point it looked pretty bleak for Amherst, when the Ephs were up 60-51 with 9:20 left to play. Reid Berman entered the game at that point and was the catalyst for a Lord Jeff comeback that forced the overtime stanza. And then Connor Green looked like the player that made me choose him as my first round pick in last year's NCAA fantasy league. Nice win for Amherst  and if this season turns out to be a successful one for them, one could point to this game against Williams as the reason why.
Good luck the rest of the year....and don't forget to PM me that phone number.        

[magicman]

Four games on the slate this evening in the YAC all at 5:30 PM


Plattsburgh State      Geneseo State      5:30 PM

This one is the Game of the Week as both teams will battle for league supremacy and it features two of the best big men in the conference. Plattsburgh sits all alone in 2nd place with a 5-2 conference record and would like nothing better then to win a pair of road games this weekend and move to 7-2 and just a half game behind 7-1 Oswego, who is idle this weekend. Geneseo with a 4-3 conference mark could vault from 5th place into 2nd place with a pair of wins this weekend.

The Battle of the Big Men features the Cardinals' Reggie Williams and the Knights' Gordon Lyons who, between them, lead the SUNYAC in a number of categories. Lyons, of course, has received national recognition with his preseason selection to the D3hoops All American 2nd team. He has certainly lived up to those expectations.

Lyons is the NCAA national leader in rebounding with 13.5 rpg. (For some reason the SUNYSC website shows him with 174 rebounds in 13 games and the NCAA website has him with 175. Neither website includes the game that Geneseo played against Roberts Wesleyan in Lyons stats.) He is listed as 2nd in the country in double doubles by the NCAA with 12 of them in 13 games. The guy in 1st place has 14 in 15 games. Lyons actually has 13 in 14 games if they counted the RW game and I won't be surprised if he has 14 in 15 games when he actually plays that many. Lyons also leads the conference in scoring with a 21.0 ppg average. He is also the leader in minutes played per game with an average of 36.8 and 2nd in field goal percentage at 59.2%.

Reggie Williams continues to improve as the season progresses. Plattsburgh has more scoring options than the Knights do and consequently Williams doesn't touch the ball as much as Lyons does for his team. When Williams does get his mitts on the ball, however, it goes in the hoop to the tune of 60.6 %, tops in the YAC. The biggest difference between Williams and Lyons in the number of times Lyons has gone to the free throw line. Lyons has made 93 of 131 free throws. Williams has only attempted 35 free throws all year, making 20 of them. Williams leads the conference in blocked shots with 29 so far in 14 games. He is also 5th in rebounding with 8.6 per game and is leading the Cardinals in scoring with 13.3 ppg.

This will be a closely contested game as each team won last year's matchup on their home court before Plattsburgh won the rubber match in Brockport in the conference semifinals. Both teams went to the Big Dance last year with at large bids and have high hopes of returning again this year. They will both need to have a big finish to make it if they don't win the automatic conference bid. The oddsmakers have made the Cardinals a slight 3 point road favorite in this game and I'm not going to go against the oddsmakers. I think the Cardinals  can pull this one off in the Knights Alumni Fieldhouse. I'm taking Plattsburgh to win by a 77-73 final score.
     
   
New Paltz State      Fredonia State      5:30 PM

The Hawks will be favored to get back on the winning track in tonight's contest against the last place Blue Devils. Still sitting in 3rd place despite their loss last week to Oneonta the Hawks continue to be the surprise of the conference so far. They are favored by 5 points tonight and Fredonia will look to pull off the upset. I'm not going with the Blue Devils, however since they still need to prove to me they can beat a D3 team. Hawks can't look ahead to Buff State tomorrow, which will be a very telling game, on how their (and Buffalo State's) season turns out. New Paltz wins by a 68-60 final score.

 
   
Potsdam State      Brockport State      5:30 PM

Brockport needs a win tonight to stay in contact with a playoff position. The Bears seem to be the right medicine. The point spread has Brockport favored by a double digit 11 point margin. I don't think it will be that close. Golden Eagles win this one by a 78-63 final. 
   
Oneonta State      Buffalo State      5:30 PM

The Bengals were ousted from conference play last year and it was a loss to Oneonta in early February that gave the Red Dragons the 6th and final playoff spot over the Bengals. Revenge has to be on the minds of the Buffalo State players. The point spread has the Bengals favored by a slim 3 points. It should be a high scoring affair and I think that Buffalo State's resurgence since the return of Chris Cartwright back in December will continue. Bengals take this one 86-81.   
 

[magicman]

Halftime score

Plattsburgh State 30 Geneseo State 25

Shamoy McIntosh with 6 and Jordan Moody also with 6 points. McIntosh hkit a pair of 3 pointer the 2nd one with 7:14 left in the half gave him exactly 1000 points for his career.

James McKenna and Andy Drescher with 7 points each for the Knights. Gordon Lyons with 5. 

[magicman]

More halftime scores

Buffalo State 34 Oneonta State 32

Brockport State 39 Potsdam State 30

New Paltz 25 Fredonia 12    Must have done away with the shot clock in this one.

[magicman]

Final score from Geneseo:

Plattsburgh State 68  Geneseo State 51

[magicman]

All the final scores:

Plattsburgh State 68  Geneseo State 51 

I had the Cardinals winning this one but by a much closer margin of 77-73. I'll take the win!!



Buffalo State 71 Oneonta State 59

Thought this would be closer as well with a higher number of points as I had it 86-81. It was only a 5 point game with 3:33 left to play but the Bengals went on a 13-6 run to end the game so it was tighter than the score indicates.




Brockport 81 Potsdam 66

Brockport scored one 3 pointer more than I said they would and so did the Bears as I had this one at 78-63. I had the 15 point margin right on the number.



New Paltz 65 Fredonia 51

No surprises in this game either as the Hawks took care of business. I had it 68-60 in favor of New Paltz. I was close with the Hawks but the Blue Devils 12 point first half doomed me there. I mean 12 points in the half, who coulda predicted that??? Hawks may not be so lucky tomorrow night in the Queen City when they face the Bengals. They are 7 point underdogs in that game and I think the Bengals will win it by a bigger margin than that. 

[magicman]

Plattsburgh State 68 Genseso State 51

I didn't expect a margin this large in the final score between these two teams. The Cardinals handed the Knights their worst loss of the season. In what was billed as a battle of two of the best big men in the conference, turned into a 3 point shooting display by the Cardinals. I said last week after Cortland came to town and upset the Cardinals, that this team, too many times this year, has lived by the three and died by the three. After dying against Cortland in the 2nd half of that game, the 3 point shooters were out in force tonight as 5 different players hit from downtown and 4 of them had 2 or more long bombs.

Geneseo grabbed an early 5 point lead but the Cardinals answered with 5 points of their own and after the Knights went in front 7-6, Plattsburgh reeled off 9 straight points to take a 15-7 lead. They were never headed and continued to lead throughout the period by at least a 4 point margin and settled for a 30-25 halftime edge.

The teams traded baskets after the break but the Knights were making layups and the Cardinals were draining threes. Gordon Lyons opened with a layup for Geneseo only to have Shamoy McIntosh answer with his third 3 pointer of the night.
A layup by the Knights' Andy Dreschler was followed by a 3 pointer from the Cards' Ezra Hodgson. The Knights came back with consecutive layups by James McKenna and Devon Anderson. The Cards responded with back to back drives to the hoop by Jordan Moody and Hodgson. Geneseo's Nick Fessenden scored to cut the lead to 5 points at 40-35 with 13:40 to play. The Knights would never be that close again. Hodgson buried a three and after a Gordon Lyons layup, the Cards Zack Coleman stole an errant pass and went the length of the court, scoring on a nice move to the basket, as he was getting fouled. He made the free throw and the Cardinals' Xavier Thomas followed that with another drive inside for a score and Plattsburgh had the first double digit lead of the game. Thomas and Kyle Richardson then provided the spark that put the Knights away for good. Down 48-39 and looking to close the gap even further the Knights went to their big man Lyons, for an inside bucket, but Richardson was there to block the shot and the Cards got the rebound. Hodgson missed a jumper but Thomas was there to get a hand on it, to tip it back up and in. After Geneseo's James McKenna made 1 of 2 from the line, Richardson drained a 3 pointer. The Knights got a 3 pointer from Jon Cohen to cut the lead to 10 but Thomas scored inside again, Richardson swished another 3 pointer, Eddie Correa got back in the act with a 3 pointer on the next Cardinal trip down the court and Richardson hit his 3rd trifecta on the ensuing Plattsburgh possession. The lead was 17, the score was 64-47 and there was 4:35 left to play. Seconds later the lead was 19 points and the Geneseo coaching staff threw in the towel. Both coaches emptied their bench as the final few minutes ticked off the clock.

Plattsburgh got contributions up and down their lineup as 2 starters and 3 subs scored in double figures. Ezra Hodgson led the scoring parade with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Kyle Richardson and Xavier Thomas both came off the bench and scored 11 points each, Richardson added 3 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks in 15 minutes of court time. His 3 long range jumpers, all within a 3 minute and 40 second span, were rally killers for the Knights and ended any hopes they had of getting back into this game. Jordan Moody also came off the bench to add 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and a steal. Eddie Correa had 10 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. He made a pair of three pointers which gave him 39 for the year and tied him for the most triples in the SUNYAC with Cortland's Blair Estarfaa. Point guard Mike Mitchell once again ran the offense in his usual efficient manner and had 7 assists while doing so. He is the conference leader in total assists with 74 for a 5.3 apg average and also tops the SUNYC with a 2.1 assist to turnover ratio. Plattsburgh's  big man, Reggie Williams, the Cardinals' leading scorer on the season, didn't have his usual offensive output. The outside shooting for Plattsburgh was going so well that the team never really looked to go inside to Reggie. He only had a few touches and was also the victim of some questionable foul calls so he didn't get quite as many minutes as usual. He was a force on the defensive end however and grabbed 6 rebounds and had 4 blocks which was instrumental in the Knights inability to put the ball through the hoop.

Shamoy McIntosh had 9 points on three 3 point baskets and added 3 assists. Shamoy's second 3 pointer that came with 7:14 left in the first half gave the Plattsburgh senior guard his 1000th career point. It should have happened Tuesday at home against Potsdam but Shamoy had to leave that game with a sprained ankle. He only played 17 minutes in tonight's game to allow him to rest up for tomorrow's battle against Brockport. He becomes the 14th player in Plattsburgh State history to score 1000 points. Congratulations to Shamoy on a stellar Cardinal career, which I hope doesn't end until he gets to play 18 more games this year, all wins of course. (In case anyone's counting...that's 10 more regular season games, 2 SUNYAC playoff games and 6 NCAA tournament games.)       

Geneseo's big man Gordon Lyons only had 13 points, which is his 2nd lowest total of the year. Lyons was only 3 for 12 from the field which was his worst shooting night of the season. Lyons did record his 14th double double in 15 games as he had a game high 15 rebounds to go along with his game high 13 points. James McKenna posted a solid stat line of 10 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and a block. Devon Anderson, who hails from my neck of the woods here in Plattsburgh and went to school at Beekmantown Central which is a stones throw from my house had 8 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds and a block. Andy Drescher had 9 points and 2 assists. Nick Fessenden had 7 rebounds to go with his 4 points.

Plattsburgh outshot the Knights in all 3 areas. They were 25-59  from the field (42.4%), 11-30 from downtown (36.7%) and 7-10 from the stripe (70.0%).

Geneseo was 19-62 from the field (30.6%), only 2-10 from long distance (20.0%) and just   11-21 from the foul line (52.4%)

The Knights outrebounded the Cardinals by a 47 to 40 margin with 20 of those boards coming off the offensive glass. That's what happens when you miss 43 of your 62 shots...plenty of offensive rebounds. Plattsburgh had 10 turnovers, their lowest total of the year while the Knights had 11 TO's. Plattsburgh had 17 assists on their 25 field goals, Geneseo had 12 helpers on their 19 made baskets.

The Cardinals improve to 11-4 overall and 6-2 in the YAC. They also keep their conference road record clean at 3-0. They move on to Brockport today for a game against the Golden Eagles at 2 PM.

Geneseo drops to 8-7 overall and falls into a 6th place tie in the conference standings with Brockport.  Both teams have a 4-4 YAC record. The Knights will take on Potsdam this afternoon at 2 pm   

   

     

[amh63]

Magicman....I sent you a PM as requested.  Hope you got it.  If not, send me one with the data I requested please
Your team lost to Cortland??  My daughter and her family lives down the road in the Village of Groton.   Yes, I've learned that there is a difference in the state between a town and a village preface!    Sure not a status thing wrt to Groton.

[magicman]

Magicman....I sent you a PM as requested.  Hope you got it.  If not, send me one with the data I requested please
Your team lost to Cortland??  My daughter and her family lives down the road in the Village of Groton.   Yes, I've learned that there is a difference in the state between a town and a village preface!    Sure not a status thing wrt to Groton.

amh63,
I did get your PM with the requested info. Thank you. I will be sending one to you later this evening. And yes we lost to Cortland and I know your daughter lives close by that college. You told me that 2 years ago when Cortland beat us. Go ahead rub it in.

[magicman]

Five games on tap today involving 9 SUNYAC teams. Only Oswego State is idle.

Plattsburgh State  at    Brockport State      2:00 PM  Co-featured Game of the Day

The temperature always gets a little warmer when these two teams square off in one of the hottest rivalries in the YAC over the past 8 years or so. So many barnburners it's hard to keep track of them. Just last year alone all 3 meetings were nail biters with each game more tension filled than the one before it, culminating with the Golden Eagles' comeback victory in the SUNYAC playoffs by a 57-56 score. The Cardinals season didn't end that day as they received a  Pool C bid into the Big Dance where they advanced to the Sweet 16, but it did deprive them of a SUNYAC Championship, something this group of senior players have yet to attain. Revenge will be at the forefront today as the Cardinals take the court in Brockport. They won in Tuttle North Gym last year and the year before that so their confidence level is high. Both teams are coming off wins last night and Plattsburgh is in much better shape than Brockport as far as the conference standings go. The Cards are all alone in 2nd place, one full game behind Oswego. With the Lakers idle today, Plattsburgh can move to within a half game of first place with a victory. Brockport is in a tie for the 6th and final playoff spot with Geneseo, who looks to grab a win today against lowly Potsdam. And though there is lots of basketball to be played yet, as today will only complete the first half of the conference schedule, the Golden Eagles would like to be in a playoff position at the end of the day. A loss today will likely put them into 7th place and a good possibility they could fall as low as 8th place, if Oneonta, Geneseo, and Buffalo State all win. I think they all do win. Brockport is the home dog here according to the oddsmakers , as the Cardinals are favored by 8 points. I think that Plattsburgh will head home with a 2-0 weekend to show for their road trip.  Final score Plattsburgh 80 Brockport 71
     
   
New Paltz State at     Buffalo State      2:00 PM          Co-featured Game of the Day

Buffalo State has made a nice recovery as they have won 4 straight conference games after starting out 1-4. They have went from near the bottom of the standings into sole possession of 5th place with a 5-4 mark and if they win today they can pull within a half game of idle (in the conference) Cortland. New Paltz is the surprise team of the YAC so far this year. With a 5-2 conference log that includes consecutive wins over Cortland, Brockport, and Geneseo, the Hawks are flying high. They took care of business yesterday against Fredonia but today they will find the going a bit tougher. The Bengals still remember how they lost to the Hawks 2 years ago near the end of the season. It was a loss that effectively kept the Bengals from the post season that year and I still hear about it from time to time. The oddsmakers have made the home team a 7 point favorite but I think the Bengals win by more than that. Buffalo State 86 New Paltz 66
   
   
Potsdam State  at    Geneseo State      2:00 PM

Knights get back on the winning track. It seems like everyone does when they get the Bears this year.  Point spread is a double digit 14 points in favor of the Knights and I think that the Bears will probably drop this one by a bigger margin than that. Geneseo 78 Potsdam 60. 
   
Oneonta State  at    Fredonia State      2:00 PM

The Red Dragons should take care of business in this one as well Fredonia hasn't got the horses to stay with Oneonta. Oddsmakers favor the Red Dragons by 11 points but I see the final as an Oneonta win by 83-64.
   
   
Cortland State at     Elmira      8:00 PM

These Red Dragons should be able to handle the Soaring Eagles but Elmira has surprised a few teams this year including SUNYAC leader Oswego, in Oswego, Clarkson at Clarkson, Hartwick at Hartwick and Ithaca at Ithaca. So the Red Xragons better not take this team for granted like they did SUNYIT last year or Utica College. Two years ago they barely beat a 6-19 Elmira team when the Red Dragons had a team that went to the Sweet 16. Odds makers have made them a 10 point road favorite. It could be closer. Cortland 74 Elmira 67.