MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

Feb. 22 Semifinal Round at Oswego State   


Plattsburgh State vs Brockport State   5:30 PM

Another battle royal between two teams that take turns beating each other. They have played 16 games over the past 7 seasons and they have an 8-8 record. This is the third time in the last 6 years that the teams will meet for a third game. Brockport won the rubber match in the 2013-14 season to win the YAC Championship, Plattsburgh returned the favor the next year upending the Golden Eagles in the semifinals but lost to the Lakers in the finals.

Once again both teams are trying to make the dance. Plattsburgh may have a shot for an at large bid even if they lose out on their annual goal of winning the SUNYAC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. However, the Cardinals could be on the outside looking in, if they lose this game to Brockport. They should be okay if they lose in the title game which would give them a 21-6 record. 20-6 could be a stretch if a number of favorites elsewhere need at large bids, due to upsets in other conference tournaments. Brockport has no such illusions. They need to win today and tomorrow or they can put their dancing shoes back in the closet until next year.

The oddsmakers have made the Cardinals a 4 point favorite, but this game is as even as they come. Both these teams have won the YAC crown as a longshot, and as a favorite in recent memory, so I expect another close game. Both teams have been fighting the injury bug as well and may be a bit shorthanded. I have to go with the Cardinals in this one 84-81.


Oneonta State @ Oswego State   7:30 PM

The Red Dragons are on quite a roll and looking like the team I thought they would be, when I picked them to come in 3rd in the conference this year. I even contemplated picking them to come in second, thinking they would beat out either Oswego or Plattsburgh, my top two choices. Then they proceeded to lose their first 4 YAC games and 6 of their first 7. Looking at the team's record of 1-6 in the conference on January 15th and mired in 9th place led me to think they may miss the playoffs. When they lost to New Paltz on January 26th for the 2nd time I thought they were dead. The Hawks not only owned a big lead but also the tiebreaker which was as good as another whole game in the standings. It would take a helluva run by the Red Dragons to make the playoffs and they had to do it against the top 4 teams and 3 of them were on the road. I wrote them off. Then they took off. The 15 point win at Cortland was an eye opener. Wow, where's that team been all year? They closed with 5 straight wins, including a whipping of the top two seeds, and none of those 5 games were close. And Tuesday night they toyed with Cortland opening up a 20 point lead, letting them close within 4, and then blowing it open again by 18 points. They did that without their leading scorer as Kevin Mackin didn't play at all in that game and neither did big man Carson Jacobs, who gives the Red Dragons solid minutes off the bench. Four of the five starters for Oneonta played 40 minutes each and the 5th starter played 35 minutes. One bench player came in for 5 minutes. It was an exceptional game by Oneonta's starters and I wish I knew who was available for tonight's contest.

Oswego looked to have the SUNYAC's top seed all sewn up with a 12-0 record, a 3 game lead and only 6 games left to play. Looks can be deceiving, though as the Lakers quickly found out. Sitting on a 3 game lead, all of a sudden became a dead heat to the finish line when Oswego lost to Cortland and Plattsburgh in a 7 day span. The Lakers had an ace up their sleeve, though, and that was a better road record than Plattsburgh, so the Cardinals had to finish ahead of Oswego or they would lose the top seed. If the Lakers suffered a 3rd loss when they played Brockport on the road they would still have the #1 seed and the tournament would go through Laker Hall. Four days after the Lakers lost to Plattsburgh, they hosted Oneonta and the Red Dragons won 70-55. Now Plattsburgh and Oswego were tied and a Laker loss to Brockport would turn the tide in Plattsburgh's favor. Only the Cardinals lost to Oneonta and Oswego was back in control. They beat Brockport and clinched the top seed setting up a repeat performance against Oneonta to see which team will advance to the Championship Game tomorrow.

Like Brockport, Oneonta needs to win the tournament and grab the automatic bid to go dancing. They won't be considered for an at large bid. Oswego is in the same boat as Plattsburgh. They need to get to the championship game, where a loss there will leave them at 21-6 and a solid chance at a Pool C bid.   

The oddsmakers like the home team and have made the Lakers a 4 point favorite, despite the victory Oneonta had in Laker Hall just 9 days ago. I'm going with the hot team here and hope they have all their players available for the game. Oneonta wins this 73-70, to advance to their 3rd straight Championship game.

[All-Time]

Magicman I love your picks.

Curle vs Conover for the SUNYAC title.

It doesn't get any better than that.

Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[magicman]

Brockport 49 Plattsburgh 40 at the half.

Brockport raining 3 pointers on the Cardinals as the Golden Eagles hit 8 of 12 from long distance. A couple of them got very lucky bounces. Antonio Alvarez with 11 points and a pair of triples. Chris Atkinson with 10 points and a pair of triples. Josh Nelson with 9 points and 3 triples. Big man and leading scorer Justin Summers went down with an injury with 12:12 left to play in the first half.

Plattsburgh has 10 points each from Jon Patron and Brandon Johnson. The Cardinals were down by 15 points but Johnson got hot and drained 3 shots from downtown in the final 1:21 of the half. The last one coming with 1 second on the clock to cut the lead to single digits.

[magicman]

Brockport 86 Plattsburgh 85  Final score.

[ronk]

D3 has the opposite result.

Looks like I read it wrong.

[thebear]

Brockport won 86-85 watched the game...

[magicman]

Oneonta 36 Oswego 32 arthe break.

Andres Rivera with 13 to lead Oneonta. Joe Bull and Dylan Trombly with 9 each.

Liam Sanborn with 11 for Oswego. Joe Sullivan with 9 and Brandon Gartland with

[thebear]

Oswego 64 Oneonta 64 heading into double overtime at Laker Hall.

[magicman]

Oswego defeats Oneonta 73-69 in double overtime.

A pair of great games tonight in Laker Hall.

[Basketball23]

Good Luck to Plattsburgh, as they say their prayers to churches Leone and Flockerzi tonight. With the all the upsets Nationally thus far I dont see a scenario with either Rochester or Oswego losing and them getting in.

[jdex]

D3 has the opposite result.

Looks like I read it wrong.

No, you did not have it wrong. Live Stats on both D3 and SUNYAC sites had Plattsburgh leading this game most of the time. Wasn't the case. Weird. Don't know about D3 immediately having the final result right, but SUNYAC board at game's end did not. Was corrected.

We took note here of Magic's halftime update that indeed had Bport in charge and immediately found video evidence. Watched Pburgh's comeback and Bport's cliffhanger victory.

Congrats to Brockport and Oswego for making the final. And to Oneonta, kudos for turning your season around. Pleasure to see your grit. And the fact you were minus keg cog Mackin was even more impressive.

[Pat Coleman]

No, you did not have it wrong. Live Stats on both D3 and SUNYAC sites had Plattsburgh leading this game most of the time. Wasn't the case. Weird. Don't know about D3 immediately having the final result right, but SUNYAC board at game's end did not. Was corrected.

It's all from the same database -- unfortunately, if the SUNYAC did not have home and away set up correctly for its neutral game, there was little we could do to change it without being informed.

[jdex]

Yes, Pat, figured it was something like that. Just wanted to let Ronk know he wasn't seeing things. Fortunately, we had options (video)

[ronk]

Yes, Pat, figured it was something like that. Just wanted to let Ronk know he wasn't seeing things. Fortunately, we had options (video)

Thanks, I thought I went into the boxscore originally and verified it; then thought I had a senior moment when it changed.

[magicman]

Brockport leads Oswego 31-25 at the half.

Jahidi Wallace with 10 points to lead Brockport.  Danny Ashley has 8 points.

Brandon Gartland and Quinn Carey with 6 points each for Oswego.

Didn't get a chance to post my prediction for this game. Brockport should have fresher legs because of the minutes the 5 starters for Oswego played last night. I still think Oswego is going to come back from the 6 point halftime deficit and win this game.
Final score could be something like 67-65 in favor of Oswego.