MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[Bengalsrule]

80-60 red dragons with 3:40 left. Medaille starting to clear thier bench. Wouldn't be surprised if half ( or at least 38%) of thier baskets were from beyond the arc!

[jdex]

Cortland over Medaille 87-67 in Buffalo to run its record to 8-1.  Bursts out to 23-4 lead and holds 43-27 intermission lead. Hosts within 46-35 three minutes into the second period but J. Morales quickly responds with a RDragon 3-pointer. Margin grows to 62-44 on G. Carter trey off B. Estarfaa's fourth assist. Morales with 20 pts(7x9fg, 6x8 3s) in 24 minutes of action. M. Kelly in 19 minutes scores 18 pts(7x11fg, 2x5 3s); Estarfaa 15 pts, 6 rebs, 5 assts in 32 minutes; Carter 12 pts, 8 rebs, 5 assts in 32'; S. Martinez 8 rebs. 3 assts in 20'.

Corts toss up 44 3-pters and make 15. Go 33x69fg overall. Medaille's J. Fagan 16 pts, M. Hollenbeck 17 pts. Buff club 7x25 3s, 26x60fg

Cortland at New Paltz on Tuesday

To view was teased with a short video, then informed we must buy a $5 ticket to continue ........... Supplied by BoxCast, a smarter way to stream .....or so they claim (richer for sure$$$$!!!!!)

[Bengalsrule]

64% 3 ptrs.  And what's surprising is medaille stayed in zone for a good part of the 2nd half after getting torched by the red dragons from the outside in the first half.

[magicman]

I looked at the game today and had Cortland winning by an 85-72 final score. Then when I heard that Johnathan Belton was out again and after the Mavericks lost to Utica College without him, I knew there was no way in hell, they were going to be able to hang with Cortland so I took this game right off the board. Glad to see the Red Dragons didn't disappoint.

In actuality, I was going to pick Cortland by that above mentioned score. However I came to work today expecting a slow day in my store and I never had a chance to look at the SUNYAC board or D3 hoops scoreboard all day long. A local school decided to start a music program and I was swamped with parents coming in to rent instruments. Still at my store and will be here for a while, playing catchup.

With the cancellation of the New Paltz-Kean game there is only 1 remaining game left for the SUNYAC to complete the non-conference portion of the schedule. That game is Monday night right here in Plattsburgh as my Cardinals take on a tough Trinity (Conn.) team.

Has anyone heard any news out of New Paltz concerning the players in the accident?

[Bengalsrule]

No update.  A Buff State coach only would say that he received an email from New Platz coach Mike Rejniak outlining what I had shared last week. New Paltz students-athletes have been meeting with counsellors for the past week. I guess no news is good news!!

Pray for New Paltz

Go BENGALS!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

New Paltz is back to practice and plan to play Cortland on Tuesday. Two of the three players have been cleared to play... the third is still fighting hard in the hospital, but I wouldn't expect him to return this season.

I can't imagine what that team is going through, but they have a strong coach in Mike Rejniak and I am sure they will possibly be playing some inspired ball the rest of the season.

[magicman]

Thank you for the update, Dave. That is good news... to hear that the two players have been cleared to play. I hope the player still hospitalized pulls through without any long term effects on his health. Plus K to you and Bengalsrule.

[pg04]

Good news indeed. I hope the remaining player continues to improve.

[scooterman]

Glad to hear the New Paltz team is back to practice and prayers to the injured players.

[amh63]

OK....know that Magicman has been actually working of late....am interested to hear his take of the game with Trinity tonight.  May even watch the game online....after the Amherst WBB game at Albright.  Trinity, last season's Nescac regular season winner is a hard team to read.  They play like their coach who is a sideline pacer and very expressive...in short...up and down.  Trinity is a deep team that can go hot and cold on offense.  Have not watched them this year to see if their defensive side has improved. 

[All-Time]

I like Plattsburgh tonight against Trinity.
I know the Magicman will have his Magic Wand out at Memorial Hall, so that is good enough for me.
Can't wait to watch this one tonight.
GO CARDINALS

[Bengalsrule]

I like Plattsburgh tonight against Trinity.
I know the Magicman will have his Magic Wand out at Memorial Hall, so that is good enough for me.
Can't wait to watch this one tonight.
GO CARDINALS

I'm with you All-Time on this 1. "Magic wand", magic potion...and it's rumored that as we text he is working on a magic spell to help subdue Trinity.  I don't think that the Cards will need that much help but the Magic 1 knows that this is the Sunyacs last chance for a quality win. I'm expecting Curle to have his Cards ready!

Go Cards ( last time I'm saying that till ncaas)

Go Sunyac

Go BENGALS

[magicman]

January 4th Trinity (Conn.)  at  Plattsburgh State  7:00 PM

I thought the final non-conference game of the SUNYAC took place tonight but I see that Fredonia State has a scheduled game against SUNY-Canton much later on February 17th. I don't believe the game between New Paltz and Kean will be re-scheduled as it says cancelled on the schedule.

The Trinity Bantams come into Plattsburgh's Memorial Hall on a 3 game winning streak and boasting an overall record of 7-3. Two of their 3 losses have come against teams that have been ranked in the D3hoops Top 25. Those teams were Eastern Connecticut (8-4), who has since fallen from a high of #14 down into the others receiving votes category and Susquehanna who is still undefeated and ranked #17 with a 12-0 record (and will probably move up in the poll coming out later today). The only other loss the Bantams have on their ledger is an opening game loss at Springfield which was the Pride's 4th game of the season and Trinity's first, which may have accounted for the only real blip on their record. More recently in a holiday tournament last Thursday and Friday the Bantams beat up on Anna Maria by an 87-58 final before they defeated Delaware Valley by a 78-64 final. Delaware Valley was 10-1 coming into that game and yesterday Del Valley defeated an unbeaten 9-0,  Swarthmore team. So the Bantams are riding a nice streak downing teams with winning records. They'd like nothing more than to add Plattsburgh to that list. 

The Bantams were the regular season NESCAC champs last year and after losing to Wesleyan in the semifinals of the conference tournament they made it to the Big Dance with a Pool C bid. In the NCAA tournament the Bantams won 3 games and advanced to the Elite Eight and a matchup with Babson. They held a 65-58 lead with under 3 minutes to go in that game but allowed Babson to tie it up and send it to overtime where Babson prevailed. So the Bantams were a whisker from going to the Final Four last March.

Trinity returned a good portion of that team, including their top 3 scorers and 6 of the top 8 players in their rotation. Frankly I'm surprised they have 3 losses at this juncture of the season. They are deep with 10 players getting double digit minutes and feature a balanced scoring attack that is led by senior guard, Jaquann Starks, with 13 ppg. Big man, Ed Ogundeko, a 6'6" junior is a F/C that averages a double-double of 12.7 ppg and 11.0 rpg. These two will be hard to contain, but if the Cardinals hope to win this game they can't let this pair go off on them. 6'6" Senior forward, Shay Ajayi, can also be troublesome with his 10.1 ppg and 7.9 rpg, so if you pay too much attention to the other 2 stars he'll make you pay as well. With a triumvirate like these 3 go to guys, it doesn't take much from the remaining players in the rotation to fill their roles and add the depth necessary to be a solid. well balanced team.

Plattsburgh counters with a deep rotation of their own but lacks the experience that the Bantams come into this game with. I also don't know which Cardinal team will show up. The team that won comfortably over Oneonta and St. Lawrence or the team that laid an egg against Skidmore and Middlebury. I have to think that this Bantam team is a stronger team than Middlebury, which doesn't bode well for the Cardinals. The Middlebury game had 3 negatives that won't be in play here. It was played on the road, it was final exam week for the Cardinal players, and the team was shorthanded with 3 players out. I'm just not sure if that will be enough to overcome a very good Trinity team.

Once again my heart and my head are in conflict. The oddsmakers, strangely, had made the Cardinals a slight favorite going into yesterday, but after the updated games were factored into the equation, most likely Trinity's win over Delaware Valley, the line has changed and the Bantams are a 2 point road favorite. I think they should be favored by more. So even though I think the Cardinals may be in a bit over their heads and have been off for 2 weeks, I'm still going with my heart (because I almost always do when it comes to the Cardinals) and picking Plattsburgh to squeak out a 75-72 win here, but won't be at all surprised if Trinity is the one doing the squeaking.               

[magicman]

Happy to see my fellow posters drinking the same RED KOOL-AID that I'm guzzling but not sure if all my magic powers and accoutrements can prevail against a top echelon NESCAC team. Hopefully our combined powers will do the trick.  

[Bengalsrule]

Newsflash... Massey reads his emails!

Buff State 7-2 ranked #71 (jumped 33 places) in Massey (thought we'd be higher but it beats #112)