MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

Fredonia losing 43-27 to Lycoming at the half.

Final score of this game was 65-47.

[Bengalsrule]

Oneonta wins by 25!  Yac goes 2-1 today.

[magicman]

Fredonia falls to Lycoming by a 65-47 final score.

I had the Blue Devils losing by an 86-68 final. Each team was exactly 21 points from their predicted total, because neither team could hit the broad side of a barn.  They were a combined 42x121 from the field and 8x53 from long distance. At one point in the 2nd half both teams went scoreless for almost 4 minutes and in a 7 minute stretch scored a grand total of 4 points. I did have the point spread of 18 points right on the money. though.

Lycoming gained the upper hand with about 8 minutes left in the first half. The Blue Devils were trading baskets with the Warriors and were down 20-19 at the time. Lycoming would go on a 16-3 run to boost their lead to 36-22 with 2:39 remaining in the period. They coasted into the break with a 43-27 advantage.

The Blue Devils played them fairly even in the 2nd stanza but really couldn't cut into the lead and they could never get closer than 14 points. The largest lead was 19 points for the Warriors. The two teams combined to score 42 total points in the half.

Fredonia got 10 points from Richard De La Cruz, the only Blue Devil to hit double figures. Kareem Brown had 7 points and 8 rebounds.  Dante Williams had 6 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

Lycoming had 3 players in double digits led by Willie Kee with 14 points off the bench.

Fredonia drops to 3-7 overall (1-3 YAC) and will play Rosemont later today. Rosemont, a team from the Colonial States Athletic Conference, lost to Delaware Valley on Thursday by a 75-70 score. Gametime in Lycoming is set for 1:00 PM .

[magicman]

Oneonta State 87  Brooklyn College 62

I thought the Red Dragons would win by more than the 10 point spread and predicted an 18 point margin of victory with my 90-72 score. They were even better. I almost got the 90 points right but when you dominate a team like this, the first unit is usually watching the action as others get more minutes. Everyone got in the game and almost everyone hit the scoreboard.

The Red Dragons trailed 2-0 and 6-5 and those were the only times that the Bulldogs were in front. Ten minutes into the game Oneonta had doubled up Brooklyn at 24-12. It would only get worse. The bulldogs did hang for a while and went into the break only down 39-28.

Seven minutes after the 2nd half started the lead was 20 and growing. 19 points was as close as the Bulldogs got the rest of the way and the lead reached a high of 33 points.

The Red Dragons.
Mikey McElroy led the way today, as he had a game high 24 points and 6 rebounds.

Lawrence Coleman had a double-double of 18 points and a game high 10 rebounds.

Kevin Mackin had 11 points and 3 rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench.

Carson Jacobs added 10 points in only 13 minutes off the bench.

Frankie Kelly had 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 5 points and a steal.

The Bulldogs
Enees Nikovic was the high score for Brooklyn with 20 points and also led the team with 8 rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench.

Niv Konfino had 15 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds.

Austin Wood had 13 points and 3 assists.

Oneonta outshot the Bulldogs in all 3 categories and had a huge advantage on the boards...55-30.  Brooklyn only had 9 turnovers to 15 for Oneonta.

Oneonta improves to 6-4 (3-1) and will travel to Williams College to take on the Ephs on Tuesday January 3rd at 6:00 PM.  Williams defeated #15 Hope College on Thursday to improve to 9-1. I expect Williams may jump into the Top 25 when the next poll comes out on Monday evening Jan. 2nd. The Red Dragons will have their hands full with a tall and talented Williams squad. The Ephs will be looking for some payback after losing to Oneonta last year, in Oneonta, by a 75-62 final score and two years ago in Willietown by a 74-68 score.   
       

[magicman]

Geneseo State 94  Centre 66

My prediction of an 88-74 double digit win by the Knights over Centre was more than the 9 points that the oddsmakers had computed, but not nearly as large as the margin of victory ended up. The Knights made short work of the Colonels, as they jumped on top and were never challenged. John Decker, Justin Ringen and Jack Manke all scored to open up a 7-0 lead and then the threesome all scored again and it was 14-4 with 15:07 left to play in the half. The Knights would eventually stretch the lead to 20 points at 44-24 when the buzzer sounded for the break.

The 2nd half was mostly played by the bench players and they increased the lead to a game high of 40 points at 87-47 with 8:14 left in the game. The starters played about 8 minutes each in the 2nd half and then rested for the game they will play on Friday.

The Knights
John Decker had scoring honors with 21 points in just 25 minutes of court time. He had 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

Justin Ringen had 18 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals in 23 minutes.

Kevin Crockett had 15 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 21 minutes.

Jack Manke had 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assists and a block in 15 minutes on the court.

Jack Eisenberg also had 10 points, 4 boards, and 1 assists in 23 minutes..

Tommy Eastman had a team high 5 rebounds, 3 points, 2 steals, and a block in 20 minutes of floor time.

The Colonels
Matt Gump had 12 points to lead the team in scoring.

Bailey Rakes had 10 points.

Art Walker had 10 points.

Perry Ayres had a game high 6 rebounds.   

Geneseo won all 3 shooting categories by a wide margin and had 39 boards to 29 for the Colonels. The Knights had 12 turnovers to 7 for Centre. 

Geneseo ups their record to 7-3 (3-1 conference) and will take on the Bethany College Bison from West Virginia in the Championship game of the  Case Western Reserve (Cleveland, Ohio) Bill Sudeck Holiday Tournament, today at 4:00 PM. Bethany defeated the host team, CWR, by an 86-82 final score, in overtime.

[magicman]

Dec. 30    

Fredonia State   vs   Rosemont  1:00 PM 
At Lycoming College  Consolation game of The Louis Fleming Basinger Memorial Tournament

The Blue Devils have an opportunity to put a W on the board as they play a team from the Colonial States Athletic Conference that is currently 4-6. The oddsmakers have listed the Ravens as a 1 point favorite so this is anybody's ballgame. My research tells me that Rosemont is slightly better than Fredonia as they own a road win over Ursinus, the team that Oneonta beat 2 days ago. I think the Ravens win by a final score of 80 -72. Hope I'm wrong though.

   
Bethany  vs  Geneseo State        4:00 PM   
At Case Western Reserve Univ. Championship Game of The Bill Sudeck Holiday Tournament

The Knights barely worked up a sweat against Centre yesterday. Bethany should present more of a challenge. The Bison hail from the Presidents' Athletic Conference and currently sport a 6-4 record but are only 1-3 in their conference. The SUNYAC is a stronger conference than the PAC and Geneseo is better positioned in the YAC  than Bethany is in their conference. The oddsmakers once again favor the Knights by a double digit margin of 11 points. I said Bethany would present more of a challenge than Centre did and they will, as the Knights won't be in front of this team by 40 points. They will be in front by 20, though. Final score should be something like Geneseo 87 Bethany 67.     

[magicman]

Updated Massey Rankings of the Top East Region teams:

#13   Rochester
#39   Brockport State
#70   Plattsburgh State
#72   St Lawrence
#74   Hobart
#75   Buffalo State   Up 57 spots off their 2 wins in Florida over the weekend.(which helped the YAC teams
            that have a win over the Bengals like Cortland and Plattsburgh.)                               
#81   Cortland State   Up 29 spots off their win over St. John Fisher
#85   Skidmore
#86   Geneseo State
#90   Hartwick
#92   St. John Fisher
#95   Oswego State
#120 RIT
#122 Stevens Tech
#125 Oneonta
#131 Union
#134 Nazareth
#182 Clarkson
#191 NYU


I only went this far to see where NYU was ranked. Seem like every year they play a cupcake schedule of non-conference opponents and are usually 9-0 or 10-0 and ranked in the Top 25. Then they get into conference play and usually get beat up and fall out of contention. This year they are 7-2 and have lost handily to the 2 teams that have decent records, Yeshiva and Purchase. Must be a down year for the Violets.

Interesting, that like the past several years, the SUNYAC has 5 of the top 9 teams and 7 of the top 15 in the  East Region.

Our top 6 teams have a combined record of 41-15 overall but 8 of those losses have come against each other. The out of conference record for those 6 teams is 24-7 which compares favorably against the non-conference schedule of most any other conference in the country.

Updated Massey Rankings of the top East Region teams:

#9.     Rochester
#32.   Brockport State
#55.   Plattsburgh State
#63.   Geneseo State
#66.   St. Lawrence
#67.   Buffalo State
#70.   Cortland State
#75.   Skidmore
#76.   St. John Fisher
#79.   Hartwick
#83.   Hobart
#87.   Oswego State
#98.   Oneonta State
#107. RIT
#120. Union
#124. Nazareth
#163. Stevens Tech
#165. Clarkson
#183. RPI
#268. NYU

Recent out of conference wins by Oneonta and Geneseo have boosted the YAC teams up a little more. Massey now has the SUNYAC conference rated as the 10th best conference in the country which is the highest we've ever been ranked as best I can remember. And the latest ranking doesn't include Oneonta's win over Ursinus. That game isn't showing a result for some odd reason.

Nice to see 7 of the SUNYAC teams ranked in the Top 100 of DIII.   

[magicman]

Fredonia defeats Rosemont 79-71. 

That's pretty darn close to the 80-72 final I predicted. Yeah, I know, I had the other team winning. I said I hope I was wrong. I got that part right.    Good job Blue Devils. 

[magicman]

Geneseo leads Bethany 38-35 at the half.


John Decker with 12 points leads all scorers. Justin Ringen has 7 points and Jack Eisenberg has 6.

Andrew Williams leads Bethany with 9 points. Calique Jones has 8 and Antonio Rudolph has 7.

[magicman]

Geneseo 80 Bethany 59

[Bengalsrule]

Interesting results when comparing Herosports rankings to Massey!

Herosports has SUNYAC ranked 7th best, however the team rankings are, as of Dec 23rd....different.

http://herosports.com/rankings/college-d3-mens-basketball

Rochester = 25th
Hobart - 45
St John Fisher - 62
Brockport - 64
Cortland - 78
Skidmore - 88
Buffalo State - 101
Plattsburgh - 102
St Lawrence - 106
RIT - 115
Oswego - 123
Geneseo - 124
Hartwick - 146
Oneonta - 164

I'm sure Dave or Pat have some insight as to how 2 polls could be so different!

[magicman]

Interesting results when comparing Herosports rankings to Massey!

Herosports has SUNYAC ranked 7th best, however the team rankings are, as of Dec 23rd....different.

http://herosports.com/rankings/college-d3-mens-basketball

Rochester = 25th
Hobart - 45
St John Fisher - 62
Brockport - 64
Cortland - 78
Skidmore - 88
Buffalo State - 101
Plattsburgh - 102
St Lawrence - 106
RIT - 115
Oswego - 123
Geneseo - 124
Hartwick - 146
Oneonta - 164

I'm sure Dave or Pat have some insight as to how 2 polls could be so different!

To rank Hobart or Fisher ahead of Brockport just tells me that Herosports isn't really a very good ranking system. I think there are at least 5 teams in the YAC that should be ranked ahead of Hobart and Fisher and maybe more.

[magicman]

Fredonia 79  Rosemont 71

It was nice to see the Blue Devils get a win here, especially against a team that they matched up well against. The first half was a back and forth affair with 8 lead changes and 8 ties. The largest lead was 23-16 with Fredonia in front, with 9 minutes to go in the half. Rosemont had their biggest lead at 29-25 after a 13-2 run erased that Fredonia lead with 6:11 remaining in the period. The Blue Devils would come back to go up 35-34 at the break.

The teams continued to trade baskets through the early part of the 2nd period and were still tied at 39 with 15:13 remaining to be played. Fredonia went on a 10-3 spurt to grab the upper hand and they maintained at least a 2 possession lead throughout the remainder of the game. After the Ravens cut the lead to 57-53 with 4:42 to go, Richard De La Cruz hit back to back 3 pointers, 18 seconds apart, to give the Blue Devils a 10 point lead at 63-53 with 4 minutes left in the game. Rosemont got it down to 4 points on several occasions but Brandon Hodge and De La Cruz made some timely free throws to keep the Ravens at bay.

The Blue Devils
Richard De La Cruz was the game's high scorer with 22 points. He added 8 rebounds, 2 assists and a block.

Ian Helps had 15 points and 5 rebounds.

Dante Williams had 12 points and 9 rebounds

Nicc Johnson had 8 points, a game high 13 rebounds, and a team high 5 assists off the bench.

Brandon Hodge had 8 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.

Kareem Brown had 8 points 3 rebounds and a steal.

The Ravens
Jamier Hughes had a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds.

Charles Presley had 12 points and 2 steals.

Clayton Wolfe had 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 points, and 2 steals.

Fredonia outshot the Ravens from the field 44.4% (28x63) to 31.5% (23x73). Long range and free throws were fairly even but the Blue Devils grabbed 53 rebounds to 37 for Rosemont. Fredonia had nearly twice as many turnovers with 17, to just 9 for the Ravens.

Fredonia improves to 4-7 (1-3 YAC) and will be off until Friday, January 6th, when they make the trek to the North Country to take on Plattsburgh State at 5:30 PM. 

             

[magicman]

Geneseo State 80  Bethany 59

I had the Knights winning this one by an 87-67 final. A little off on the final but had the margin of victory almost perfect.

Geneseo spotted the Bison 4 points before they started get in gear.  John Decker scored Geneseo's first 12 points but picked up 2 early fouls and was on the bench with 13:33 left to play in the period. The Knights finally gained their first lead on a Kevin Crockett layup to put them ahead 14-13. The Bison went back in front 15-14 but the Knights regained the lead on a 3 pointer from Tommy Eastman. The Knights went up by 5 points but Bethany caught them and regained the lead, 30-29, with 7 minutes to play. Geneseo scored the next 7 points to go up 36-30, which was the biggest lead of the opening stanza. Bethany narrowed the gap to 38-35 with 2:33 remaining and the teams came up empty on the final 9 shots they took in the period.

The Bison also scored first again in the 2nd half, and managed to go in front 40-38. The lead was short lived though as Decker scored to tie the game, Jack Eisenberg hit a pair of free throws and then Justin Ringen scored twice on a layup, then a 3 pointer. As quick as you could say Tommy Eastman...who scored the next 6 points...the Knights were in front 55-43. Up 60-45 with 9 minutes to go, Bethany never got closer than 13 points as Geneseo increased their lead to a final of 21 points.

The Knights
John Decker once again captured scoring honors with 19 points in only 18 minutes on the court. He was named the MVP of the tournament

Freshman Tommy Eastman had 18 points 7 rebounds and 3 steals in 19 minutes of court time off the bench. It was a new career high for Tommy as he eclipsed the 15 points he scored back in November against New Rochelle.

Justin Ringen just missed a double-double with 15 points and a game high 9 rebounds. He joined Decker on the All Tournament Team

Jack Eisenberg added 10 points, 4 assists, and 3 rebounds.

The Bison
Andrew Williams had 17 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Calique Jones had 14 points and 5 rebounds.

Liam Davis had a team high 6 rebounds to go with 6 points.

The Knights outshot the Bison 52.8% (28x53) to 32.8 % (22x67). From long range Geneseo was 10x27 (37%). Bethany was 8x26 (30.8%). The Knights were 14x17 from the line. Bethany was 7x8. Geneseo committed 3 turnovers to 8 for the Bison.

The Knights bring back the championship trophy from the Case Western Reserve Holiday Tournament and improve their record to 8-3 overall (3-1 conference). The Knights are off until January 7th when they will host travel partner, Brockport, currently 3-0 in the conference, in a battle for first place.       

[magicman]

Jan. 2  Two games on tap today and I'm a little late so before I look I'm making a couple of picks. 

Cortland   vs  Widener      1:00 PM     Johns Hopkins Tournament at Baltimore, Md.

The Red Dragons should handle this team from the Mid Atlantic Commonwealth Conference. Buffalo State took care of another team from this conference, Alvernia and Widener is probably not quite as good. The oddsmakers have favored the Red Dragons by 9 points but I think they win by more than that. Cortland 83 Widener 67.

 
Brockport   vs   Carnegie Mellon  3:00 PM

The Golden Eagles return to action after a long layoff of 3 weeks. They might be a bit rusty but they should still take care of another UAA team. Carnegie Mellon is 5-5 on the year but has only beaten 1 team with a winning record.  The oddsmakers have favored Brockport by 8 points. I think they win by double digits even if they are rusty. Brockport takes this one 84-70.