MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

The SUNYAC PLayer of the Week for the week ending February 7th is Brian Sortino from Oswego State.
Here's the write up from the YAC website.

Brian Sortino, Oswego State
Fairport / Fairport

Brian Sortino played 115 minutes for the Lakers this week, playing a key offensive role as the Lakers went 2-1 in conference play. The senior averaged 23.3 points per game over the stretch, scoring 70 total. Sortino shot 49.0% (24-for-49) from the field and held a 31.3% (5-16) from beyond the arc. At the charity stripe, Sortino added to his SUNYAC-high made free throws, sinking 17. Not only was the Fairport, N.Y. native a scorer but he also led the team in assists over the week with 14.

Congratulations to Brian on an outstanding week.

[magicman]

Final Scores and Wrap Up from Saturday

Oswego State 75      Buffalo State 71

I just missed a perfect score here as I predicted the score of this one to be a 75-72 Oswego State win. I'll have to speak to Mike Henry about that free throw he missed with 4:42 left in the game. That was the 72nd point I needed for perfection.

Another tough loss for the Bengals and this one may have been a knockout blow. They will have to put together a winning streak to end the season and get to 10 wins. Oswego with 7 wins should end up with at least 9 wins and a good chance they will own the tiebreaker over Buffalo State if they both finish 9-9. Bengals have no guarantee that 10 wins will get them a playoff spot, either, but that's the best they can do and I think they have to run the table.

Buff State grabbed an early lead but the Lakers recovered and led for most of the first half by as much as 7 points. The Bengals came back to tie it at 29 all on a Nico McLean jumper with 1:06 remaining. It was tied again at 32, but the Lakers Mark Candelario scored at the buzzer to give Oswego a 34-32 halftime edge.

Oswego came out of the break and promptly went on a 14-3 run to open up a 13 point lead at 48-35 with 14:22 on the clock. The run was fueled by 2 Alex Rawa 3 pointers and 6 points from Brian Sortino. The Bengals went 1-10 during that stretch, with a pair of turnovers.

Buffalo State started to chip away at the lead and back to back 3 point plays, an old fashioned...and one, by McLean and a 3 pointer by Kevin Marmolejos cut the lead to 52-47 with 10:17 to go. The Bengal's Jordan Chateau hit back to back shots to get the Bengals back to a 1 possession game at 56-53 but Oswego responded with a 9-4 spurt to build the lead back to 8 points. The Bengals got as close as 3 points with 44 seconds left and needing a stop got Oswego to miss a jumper by Kyle Covely but the Lakers retained possession and the Bengals had to foul. Covely made 1 of 2 to put the game away.

Brian Sortino led the Lakers with 23 points, 7 assists and 3 rebounds. Kyle Covely had 22 points, including 5 3 pointers, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 assist.

Alex Rawa had 11 points, with 3 from behind the arc, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. Mark Candelario had a double-double with 10 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks and 1 assist.

Nico McLean led the Bengals with a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds. He added 6 assists 3 steals and 2 blocks as well. Mike Henry had 13 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 assist.

Kevin Marmolejos had 13 points, 3 rebounds an 1 assist. Jordan Chateau had 8 points and 8 rebounds, while Lovell Smith added 8 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and a block. Redell Freeman came off the bench with 6 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in 27 minutes.The Bengals were shorthanded this weekend without Jordan Glover and Leon Moise.

The teams were fairly even with shooting percentages with the Bengals slightly better than the Lakers,     39.3 % to 39.0 % from the field. The Lakers were 74.1% from the line and the Bengals were 73.1%. Oswego was 9x27 from downtown (33.3%) and Buff State was 4x16 (25%).

The Bengals won the battle of the boards, 47-35, but had 20 turnovers to only 12 for Oswego.

Buffalo State is now 12-9 overall and 6-8 in the conference and falls to 7th place. They will travel to Geneseo on Tuesday for a 7:30 PM start.

Oswego improves to 14-6 on the season and 7-6 in the YAC. They will travel to New Paltz for a Tuesday evening game.         


Oneonta State 84 Potsdam State 68

I had the Red Dragons winning this one by a 92-68 final score. The Bears did their part but Oneonta came up a bit short of my projected total. Still fairly close to the actual score.

Oneonta trailed briefly in the early stages of the first half but quickly caught and passed the Bears halfway through the period. By the 10:25 mark they  had opened up a double digit lead 25-15 lead. Still up 30-23 with 7:33 remaining, Oneonta went on an 11-2 run to increase the lead to 41 to 25 and headed into the  break up 48-31.

The Bears played a solid 2nd half and managed to hang with the Red Dragons but they could never cut into the big lead and make it a ballgame. Oneonta led throughout the period by as many as 20 and never less than 12. Potsdam scored 37 points in the half to 36 for Oneonta and the Red Dragons eased to the finish line with a comfortable 16 point win.

Mikey McElroy was the big gun for the Red Dragons tossing in 25 points with 3 boards, 3 assist and 2 blocks. Lawrence Coleman was close behind with 20 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.

The Bears got 16 points each from Joe Estramonte, and Serigne Kane. Estramonte had 3 assists, 2 rebounds and a steal. Kane added 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 1 assists. Mitch Lamerson chipped in with 12 points and 5 rebounds.

Oneonta outshot the Bears from the field (50.8% to 44.6%) and from the line by a wide margin (13x17 to 2x3). The Bears made 8x18 from long distance to 7x18 for Oneonta. The Red Dragons had 38 rebounds to 32 for the Bears and had 13 turnovers to 16 for Potsdam.

Oneonta has an overall record of 13-7 and is now tied with the other Red Dragons from Cortland for 3rd place with an 8-5 conference record. That tie will be broken on Tuesday night Feb 9th, when Oneonta hosts Cortland at the Dewar Arena at 7:30 PM.

Potsdam falls to 1-19 overall and 1-12 in the YAC. They will return to action against Oswego on Friday night when the Lakers make their annual trek up to the North Country.


Cortland 81  Fredonia 76

My prediction of a 79-63 Cortland win was well on its way of happening but took a wrong turn shortly after the 2nd half started. Still I was only 2 points off with my Cortland total but the Blue Devils put up a few more points than I expected.

   
The Red Dragons tried to give this one to Fredonia after leading the Blue Devils by 21 points near the end of the 1st half. Up 41-20 with 3:38 left in the first period, the first crack appeared in the Dragon's armor when they allowed the Blue Devils to close the half on an 8-2 burst that cut the deficit to 43-29 heading into the break.

Fredonia landed another big blow when they came out of the locker room and proceeded to rip off a 12-2 run to cut the lead to 4 points and let the Red Dragons know they were in it for the long haul. That made it 45-41 as Fredonia got 8 points from Richard De La Cruz and 4 points from Ian Helps. The Blue Devils couldn't get closer and Cortland couldn't pull away, as back and forth play went on for the next 4 minutes. Finally the Red Dragons built the lead back to 10 points with 9:25 left to play. The Blue Devils answered with 6 straight points to close the gap again, at 61-57, with 8 minutes left. When Kareem Brown drained a 3 pointer for Fredonia, a few minutes later,the comeback was complete, the score was tied at 65 and there was 5:13 left to play.

However the Blue Devils couldn't take the next step and twice had the opportunity to take the lead but failed to convert. The first time they turned it over and the 2nd time their shot was blocked. Cortland up by 1 at that point, 70-69 was fouled and JP Reagan made both free throws to put the Dragons up by 3 points with 2:18 to play. Brown nailed another jumper for Fredonia and Cortland's Blair Estarfaa made another pair from the line. Four straight possessions, 2 by each team, resulted in no points  and when Fredonia, down by 3, stole the ball with 42 seconds left, they took a timeout. Seconds later they turned it over and had to foul, as TJ Hefele went to the line. he made the first one, missed the 2nd and Cortland's James Morales got the rebound. He was fouled and also made 1 of 2 from the line. Down 76-71 with 33 seconds left the Blue Devils needed to score  and when they came up empty, it was Carrel Joseph's turn to make 1 of 2 from the line for Cortland. Fredonia then went to the line but missed the front end of a 1&1 and when Cortland rebounded the miss, Estarfaa went to the line for 2 more free throws to put the game out of reach. Brandon Hodge hit a 3 ball for Fredonia and Estarfaa made 2 more from the line to close out the scoring.

Estarfaa and Reagan both had 17 points to lead Cortland. Reagan also had 7 rebounds. Carrel Joseph had 13 points and 10 rebounds while James Morales had 11 points and 4 rebounds.

Ian Helps led all scorers with 29 points for the Blue Devils. He had 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 assists and a steal.
Jared Fish and 10 points with 7 rebounds and Richard De La Cruz had 10, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

Cortland improves to 14-6 overall and 8-5 in the conference. They invade Oneonta to try and take over sole possession of 3rd place on Tuesday night.

Fredonia falls to 6-14 overall and 5-9 in the YAC. They are pretty much eliminated from playoff contention and will look to play spoiler for the remainder of the season. They would like to start doing that by beating Brockport for a 2nd time this season, on Tuesday night.               

 

[magicman]

Tuesday February 9th  4 games on tap

Oswego State  at  New Paltz State   7:30 PM

The Lakers are in 6th place in the conference and hold a one and a half game lead over Buffalo State. A win tonight would really make that a 3 game lead with 4 games to play, since Oswego holds the tiebreaker over the Bengals.  Lakers also shooting for a better position than 6th place and with the teams ahead of them so tightly bunched a good weekend can do wonders. They can start tonight by taking care of business against the Hawks.

Oswego won by double digits just a few weeks ago and the point spread has them favored by 12 points tonight. I think they will cover that spread and win by a 77-62 final score.


Buffalo State  at  Geneseo State        7:30 PM

Both these teams need to win in the worst way. Geneseo if they have any hope of catching Plattsburgh for the top seed has to win tonight. They simply cannot afford to go 4 games down to Plattsburgh with 5 games to play. They also need to protect the #2 seed and get that first round bye. A loss tonight will drop them behind the winner of the Oneonta-Cortland game. They are coming off a loss at home to their travel partner, Brockport State, and that cost them a golden opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the pack. Now it's a dogfight, and they have 3 games in a row on the road after tonight. Plus they host Plattsburgh State on the final day of conference play and that game will surely be a must win for the Knights to grab one of the top two seeds.

Buffalo State has shot themselves in the foot with 4 losses in their last 5 games. They lost those 4 games by a total of 11 points, so the pain is obvious to this concerned bystander. Two of their other conference losses were also heartbreakers, with one coming on a last second 3 pointer by Plattsburgh to force overtime which led to a loss and the other coming on a last second 3 pointer by Cortland to win back in December. They lost the 4 games to Plattsburgh and Cortland by a combined total of about 15 seconds. Now the Bengals simply cannot afford to lose any more games. Their playoff hopes are already on life support because they need help to make the playoffs. Even if they win their last 4 games to get to 10-8 that still may not get them into 6th place. But they certainly won't have a chance if they lose 1 more.

The oddsmakers have listed the Bengals as a slim 1 point road favorite in this game and I find that a bit unusual since the Knights are ranked 49 places higher than Buffalo State. If there are any basketball gods looking down on the Bengals they should be shining a light on the Orange and Black, to make up for the trials and tribulations they have put this team through, this season. My heart says the Bengals are overdue, my head says...Geneseo won in Buffalo, Ringen and Decker will shoot lights out on their home court, and the Bengals may be shorthanded. I'm going with my head on this one and taking Geneseo to win by an 86-82 final score. But I hope I'm wrong and the Bengals stay alive, while my Cardinals get a bigger lead in the standings.           




Cortland State  at  Oneonta State    7:30 PM   Featured Game of the Day

The 2nd Battle of the Red Dragons should once again come down to the final few minutes of the game. Oneonta needs this one more than Cortland or those Red Dragons will own the series sweep against Oneonta. Tied at 8-5 the winner of this game will find themselves in 2nd place if Geneseo loses tonight which is a distinct possibility.

The oddsmakers have made Oneonta a 6 point favorite and I'll be surprised if Mikey McElroy and friends allow Cortland to win this one. The last one was decided by a key 3 point shot in the final minute that gave Cortland a 2 possession lead. This time I think it will be Oneonta hitting that big shot down the stretch. I'm taking the Red Dragons to win by an 83-78 final score. That's the Oneonta variety just so there's no mistaken identity here.  
 

   
Fredonia State  at  Brockport State    7:30 PM

The Golden Eagles have won two big games in a row and have put themselves in position to challenge for the #2 seed and a first round bye. I think the top seed is out of reach since they already have 5 losses but if they win out, they own the tiebreaker over Geneseo and everyone else, at the present time, because they are the only team to defeat # 1 Plattsburgh. They would certainly like to have a do over on the last Fredonia game. That may be the one that could come back to haunt them. Tonight they hope to make up for that misstep and possibly move up another rung on the SUNYAC stepladder. A win here will certainly move them up one spot and possibly two depending on the outcome of the other games.

The point spread has the Golden Eagles winning by a 13 point margin. Fredonia has nothing to lose and they played Cortland pretty tough the other night. I'm not sure they will lose this game by double digits but I do think they will lose this game. Brockport keeps their winning streak alive as they take this one by a 76-67 final score.        

[All-Time]

4 games on tap tonight in the SUNYAC

Oswego all over New Paltz

Buffalo State desperate for a win @ Geneseo wins a close one to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Brockport wins going away against Fredonia

The Oneonta Red Dragons beat up Cortland tonight in a packed house at Dewar Arena

Enjoy the Games

[jdex]

Cortland 25, Oneonta 21, half.  Fire breathing RDragons not in the house. OSt shooting at a 28 percent fg clip, Corts 32 percent. Host Oneonta holds the edge till M. Kelly and C. Joseph three-pointers. Joseph with 8 pts paces Cortland. M. McElroy 5 pts heads Oneonta. Cortland's B. Estarfaa scoreless in 18 minutes. Exits briefly with ailing leg/ankle

[magicman]

jdex

Neither team shooting very well.  A combined 5 for 29 from long distance. Didn't see the injury to Estarfaa as I was watching Geneseo-Buff St. What happened?

[magicman]

Geneseo leads Buffalo State 43-40 at the half.

John Decker with 15 and justin Ringen with 13 for the Knights.

Lovell Smith with 12 and Kevin Marmolejos with 11 for the Bengals.

[magicman]

Oswego over New Paltz 41-30 at the break.

Mykelle Krecko with 9 to lead Oswego. There's a name I've been touting for a while.

Brandon Guest with 8 for the Hawks.

[magicman]

Brockport leads Fredonia by a 41-29 score at the break.

Levi Pace with 10 and Clifton Lyerly with 7 for Port.

Ian Helps with 6 points to lead Fredonia.

[jdex]

Cortland 64, Oneonta 56, final.  Final score the game's largest margin as CSt sweeps regular season series. Corts by 25-21 at halftime and emerge in second half for six point lead. OSt responds from longrange -- J. Zuvic with a pair of treys. M. McElroy leads Oneonta to 44-43 edge at the 10 minute mark. CSt's C. Joseph quick to answer to give guests a lead they would never relinquish. TJ Hefele trey at five minutes widens the lead to 55-48. L. Coleman immediately connects from the left corner arc. J. Morales hits clutch corner hoop for Cortland with shot clock nearly expired for 57-51 lead. Joseph triple extends it to seven points. Zuvic counters at 1:40. Hefele driving feed for D. Hampton layup at 1:10 and it's 62-56. Corts play well down the stretch. B. Estarfaa free throws at 0:26 seal it.

Joseph with 14 pts(4x9 3s), 8 rebs in 33 minutes. JP Reagan 10 pts in 19 minutes and unusually not on the floor at the end. Ten Cortlanders score -- bench plays well. Estarfaa with 5 assts, 6 pts(2x9fg) in 36'. Briefly shaken up in opening frame. D. Hampton for Cots with 8 vital pts, 5 rebs in 19'. McElroy with 20 points(9x18fg), 4 assts in 36'  for OSt, Zuvic 12 pts in 23', Coleman 11 pts, 12 rebs in 26'; J. Kolosky 10 rebs.  Some cockeyed shooting throughout -- Cortland 25x66fg, 8x27 3s, 6x10ft; Oneonta 21x63fg, 7x35 3s, 7x11ft. OSt 45-41 board edge. Ball a tad slick both ways as far as turnovers, though Oneonta 13 nearly twice that of Cortland. CSt bench 33 pts, OSt 10

Cortland in north country hike for Friday tip with Pburghers and Saturday matinee vs. Pdamers

[magicman]

Buffalo State defeats Geneseo  92-87.

Bengals down 80-73 with 5 minutes to go end the game on a 19-7 run to win in Geneseo.

Bengals get contributions from 5 different players down the stretch to pull out the win

Kevin Marmolejos with 22 points to lead Buffalo State. He was 6x16 from long range.

Mike Henry had 20 points and 9 rebounds. Lovell Smith had 20 points and 6 rebounds.

Nico McLean had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. he also had 6 assists.


Geneseo was led by Justin Ringen who was the game's leading scorer with 28 points. He had 8 rebounds and was 5x9 from downtown.

John Decker scored 22 points and was also 5x9 from 3 point range. Jordi Menkhorst added 10 points and 5 rebounds.

Buffalo State keeps their playoff hopes alive for the time being. They improve to 13-9 overall and 7-8 in the YAC. They remain in 7th place  and will travel to Fredonia on Friday to take on the Blue Devils.

Geneseo falls to 14-6 overall and 8-5 in the YAC. They are now in 3rd place,  a half game behind Cortland. They will travel to New Platz on Friday and look to get back on the winning track. 

[magicman]

Oswego State 73 New Paltz 57

Brian Sortino with 20 points and Mykelle Krecko with 13 to lead the Lakers.

RJ Rosa had 18 and Brandon Guest had 15.

Oswego moves to 15-6 overall and 8-6 in the conference. They are now tied with Oneonta for 5th place. The Lakers travel north on Friday to take on Potsdam

New Paltz drops to 4-16 overall and 3-11 in the YAC. They will host Geneseo on Friday.                                                                   

[magicman]

Brockport 82 Fredonia 58

The Golden Eagles shot out to a double digit lead after 7 minutes of play and were comfortably ahead the rest of the way. The were up by 12 at the break and opened the 2nd half with a 16-3 run that had them up by 25 points with 14 minutes left to play. Tonight there would be no Fredonia comeback and the Eagles got some revenge for last month's upset by the Blue Devils.

Brockport had 12 players break into the scoring column led by Clifton Lyerly with 17 points. Levi Pace had 12 points and 7 rebounds and Olusola Adeniran had 11 points.

Ian Helps was the only Blue Devil that was in double figures with 10 points.

Brockport ups their record to 13-7 and moves into a 3rd place tie in the conference with an 8-5 mark. They are tied with their travel partner, Geneseo, but currently own the tiebreaker over the Knights, so for now they are in 3rd place by themselves. They are also tied with 2nd place Cortland in the loss column and already own a victory over the Red Dragons. These 2 teams will meet again in a week and even if Brockport loses that game they will still hold the tiebreaker over Cortland by virtue of their win over Plattsburgh, should they end up in a tie at the end of the regular season. While catching Plattsburgh for the top seed looks to be out of range for anyone in the YAC, that all important 2nd seed is wide open and the Golden Eagles have the inside track after tonight's action.

Brockport will return to action on Friday night when they travel to New Paltz for a 7:30 PM tip off.

Fredonia, now 6-15, 5-10 will be back in action on Friday night when they host Buffalo State, also at 7:30 PM.   

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Regional Rankings: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2016/02/10/first-2016-regional-rankings-released-today/

[amh63]

Magicman......Congrats!.......Do not know how you did it.....but that magic  stick go your team to the TOP spot in the first Regional rankings.
Await your analyses of the rankings