MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[thebear]

My Bears open at Jerry Welsh Gymnasium at 7 PM tonight for their only home game of the fall semester.
Bears return starting PG Danny Delsol-Lowry, Wing Jayquan Thomas and Wing Aaron Armstrong.
Roo's with new coach Shiva Senthil return 7'1" Aussie Andrew Fitch plus PF Joseph Werner, and 6th man Danny Santana.
Go Bears

[ronk]

My Bears open at Jerry Welsh Gymnasium at 7 PM tonight for their only home game of the fall semester.
Bears return starting PG Danny Delsol-Lowry, Wing Jayquan Thomas and Wing Aaron Armstrong.
Roo's with new coach Shiva Senthil return 7'1" Aussie Andrew Fitch plus PF Joseph Werner, and 6th man Danny Santana.
Go Bears

Why? Do they like to bond on bus trips?

[magicman]

Time to kick off the 2019-2020 basketball season and who better to do it than my alma mater Potsdam State. The Bears will host the Kangaroos from SUNY-Canton in a renewal of what has becomes a close rivalry between the two teams. It was made even closer when the Bears managed to swoop the Roo's coach from them a few years ago and now Canton would love nothing better than to hang a loss on their former coach, Jim Bechtel. Coach Bechtel has shown steady improvement since taking over at Potsdam, when he inherited a team that had went 3-46 in the 2 years before his arrival. He went 3-22 his first year, including a loss to Canton, but upped the victory total to 11 his 2nd year and last year went 13-13 and made the SUNYAC playoffs for the first time in 8 years. He has beaten Canton the last 2 seasons but both those games came right down to the wire.

Each team lost a lot of firepower to graduation so it remains to be seen who will have the edge in tonight's contest. They have faced off 6 times in the past 10 years with the Bears holding a 4-2 edge in those games. Potsdam has won the last two seasons so Coach Bechtel has a 2-1 record against his former team. Both of those wins were by a 3 point margin.

The oddsmakers have made the Bears a 10 point favorite in this game but based on past history I think that spread is inflated. Potsdam could lose this game and I wouldn't be surprised, as both they and the Roos will need to find the right chemistry on the court with so many changes in the starting lineups.

I can't pick against my alma mater though and I think the Bears will pull out a W in this game but it will be another close contest. Potsdam wins 76-72.     

[amh63]

Magicman....see you are back in the saddle again , my friend.
Me, one more football game on Saturday.  Many Fall sports playing for conference titles and then the post season.
Basketball starts soon enough....Amherst adds two assist coaches to support Interim HC Toomey while HC takes a sabbatical season off.  Amherst ranks in high in the preseason polls as well as the women basketball team.
Keep in touch .

[magicman]

Potsdam State leads Canton 37-30 at the break.

Bears trailed 17-12 and went on a 14-0 run to grab a 26-17 lead with about 7 minutes to go in the period. Canton closed to within 2 points at 29-27 but another spurt by Potsdam gave them the 7 point edge at halftime.

Jayquan Thomas leads the Bears with 8 points. Brandon Segar jr. and  Dante Viskovich both have 6 points. Segar has 4 boards.


Joseph Werner leads all scorers with 11 points and 7 boards for the Roos and Andrew Fitch is next with 6 points and 5 rebounds.

[magicman]

Potsdam State defeats Canton 75-67.

The Bears open the season on a positive note as they grabbed the lead with 8:43 left in the first half and never trailed after that. Canton had opened a 5 point lead at 17-12 on back to back buckets by 7 footer Andrew Fitch but Potsdam fought back as Jayquan Thomas got a hoop and harm, Dante Viskovich buried a three ball, Thomas got a steal that resulted in a layup by Isaiah Joseph and after the Roos came up empty, Viskovich buried another one from downtown and the Bears were suddenly up 23-17 on an 11-0 run, with 7:45 left in the half.
A minute later, junior transfer, 6''6" Brandon Segar Jr. scored his first field goal in a Potsdam uniform with a three pointer to make it 26-17 and the largest lead of the first period. Canton kept it close with a 10-3 run of their own to make it 29-27 but the Bears got the lead back to 7 at the break, 37-30.

Another jumper by Segar Jr. put Potsdam up by 10 for the first double digit lead of the night at 42-32 and again Canton came back to get within 2 points several times with the last occurring at the 13:09 mark at 50-48. Potsdam was still clinging to their slim lead  when once again Jayquan Thomas scored on a layup and went to the line for the 3 point play. Point guard Danny Delsol-Lowry scored 5 straight points, 2 from the line and a 3 pointer, and Segar Jr nailed another threeball to boost the lead back to 11 at 61-50 with 10:18 left to play.  The Bears maintained their double digit lead and it grew to 16 points, 73-57, the largest of the night, when Thomas scored inside again, followed by a jumper from Tyrese Baptiste, with 5:48 remaining. Canton didn't go quietly into the night, however, as they narrowed the lead to 74-67 with a 10-1 run with 2:01 still on the clock. But first they ran out of luck and then time as they came up empty in their final 4 possessions.  The Bears go 1x6 from the line, down the stretch to give the Roos some hope.

Both teams shot 39% from the field. Bears made 6 three pointers, Roos had 7. Both teams had 44 rebounds. Bears had 17 turnovers, Canton had 21. Bears had 13 steals, Canton had 7.

Biggest difference..... Potsdam was 22x36 from the line Canton was 2x4.  Don't think Coach Bechtel could complain about the calls too much tonight!

Bears were led by Jayquan Thomas with 17 points, 3 assists and 5 steals.
Danny Delsol-Lowry had 14 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists.
Brandon Segar Jr. had 11 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals.
Tyrese Baptiste had 9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals, off the bench


Canton was led by Joseph Werner who captured scoring and rebounding honors with a double-double of 23 points and 14 rebounds.
Quran Dubois had 15 points and 6 rebounds.
Andrew Fitch had 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Potsdam will play their 2nd game of the season on Tuesday Nov. 12th when they travel to Canton to take on another North Country rival, St. Lawrence at 6:00 PM.

[magicman]

Nov. 9  Two Games on Tap Today   


Baruch  @  New Paltz        3:00 PM

The Hawks return their 3 top scorers and 5 players that averaged double digit minutes on the court last season. It was the 2nd year of head coach Keith Kenney's tenure and the team showed considerable improvement over his first year of trying to resurrect the fortunes of New Paltz basketball. The Hawks finished with a 14-11 record and just missed the SUNYAC playoffs which will be their first goal this season. That 14-11 record was the first time the Hawks have had a winning season since 1999 when Coach Kenney was the player leading the Hawks to their best season in Hawk history. Now he'd like to be the coach that leads them to the best season in their history. I wouldn't bet against him.

The first opponent the Hawks will face is Baruch College who is coming off a season in which they were conference champions and went to the NCAA tournament last March. They were one and done at the Dance as they ran into perrenial tournament participant Wooster College but still the Bearcats finished the year with a solid 22-6 mark. That's the good news. The bad news is they lost 4 starters and 5 of their top 9 rotation guys. Lots of new faces to fill in the spaces. And when you have NY City to recruit from then anything can and does happen.

The oddsmakers have made the Hawks a slim 3 point favorite and I can't argue with that, but I am a little surprised since Baruch won last year's matchup by a 76-60 score. I know little about the Bearcats and can only make an educated guess about the outcome of this one. I know the Hawks will play a solid game and look for the best open shot. I'm taking New Paltz to win this one by a 74-70 final score.       





Nazareth  @  Buffalo State    7:00 PM

Another game between 2 teams that have wholesale changes in their lineups. The Bengals had a young team last year and I expected them to bring just about everybody back. Looking at the roster though I see some glaring omissions especially the absence of leading scorer Dom Grayer. I hope for their sake that he may return in the 2nd semester. Four of the top eight guys are gone from last year's lineup but the good news is that the second, third, and fourth leading scorers are back. Seven new faces including 2 community college transfers, 4 freshman and a sophomore round out the 14 player roster. The Bengals had so many tough, close losses last year that if there had been a trophy for hard luck they would have surely walked off with it. Maybe this season things will even out.

THe Nazareth Golden Flyers were another team that had some suuccess last year (18-8, 12-4 E8) but just couldn't get the win at the right time. They were runners up in the Empire 8 regular season to Alfred and and then lost in overtime to St. John Fisher in the E8 tournament to end their campaign. The entire starting 5 graduated, which is 55 ppg, and 24 rpg, they will be lookng to replace.

The oddsmakers have made Nazareth a slight favorite by just 2 points making the game basically a tossup. I tossed a coin...it was a Buffalo nickel... it came up with the Buffalo staring me in the face. I'll take the Bengals from Buffalo State to win this one 79-74.         

[magicman]

New Paltz leads Baruch 43-41 at the half.

[magicman]

New Paltz  defeats Baruch 90-79.

[magicman]

Buffalo State trails Nazareth 44-32 at the half.

[magicman]

Buffalo State drops a a 78-69 decision to Nazareth.

[magicman]

New Paltz 90  Baruch College 79

The Hawks got balanced double figure scoring from 4 players, which included several new faces, starting with Jr. transfer, 6'4" G/F  Richard Altenord, who opened his New Paltz career with 17 points and 5 rebounds. Also getting off to an excellent start, in his first game in a Hawks' uniform, was RJ Meyers-Turner a 5'9" Freshman guard. RJ came off the bench to log 23 minutes of playing time and scored 18 points on 6x11 shooting, which included 3x4 from behind the arc.

It was a pair of veterans that led the way for the Hawks, however, as they filled up the stat sheet to open their season. The leading scorer for New Paltz was one of their top returning players, Jr. guard Jake Passaretti, who dropped in 19 points, had 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 7 steals. Right behind was 6'6" Sophomore forward, Isaiah Bien-Aise, who just missed a double-double with 17 points and 9 rebounds. The Hawks' two leading scorers from last season, 6'5" Sr. forward Scott Reisert and 6'4" Sr. forward Tristan Wissemann scored 6 and 5 points respectively. That should open some eyes around the league when the Hawks can put 90 points on the board in a close game and your one-two punch from last year didn't have to carry the offense.

The first half was closely contested with 11 lead changes. The only time the teams were tied was at 40-40 with 31 seconds left in the period. Baruch hit a free throw to go up by 1 and the Hawks' Richard Altenord hit a 3 pointer with a few seconds left to allow New Paltz to go into the break up 43-41.

The first 5 minutes of the 2nd half produced a tie and 2 more lead changes but Altenord got a steal and a layup for New Paltz with 14:54 on the clock to give the Hawks a 50-49 advantage. They would never trail again.  5 points from  RJ Meyers-Turner and another basket by Altenord put the Hawks up 57-49 to give them some breathing room. The lead would remain between 3 and 9 points over the next 9 minutes but the Bearcats made a push and cut the margin to a single possession at 75-72 with 5:52 left to play. Isaiah Bien-Aise buried a 3 pointer and then followed that with a pair of free throws to build the lead back to 8 points. Some timely baskets down the stretch by Jake Passaretti and a pair of free throws  boosted the lead to 13 points but it was a closer game than that until the 4 minute mark when the Hawks took control.  Nice opening win for the team.

Both teams shot around 45-46 % from the field. Hawks were 13x28 from long distance (46%)  Bearcats were just 7x19 (36%). Hawks went 17x27 from the line (63%) Baruch only 14x30 (46%). Hawks had 37 rebounds to 32 for Baruch. Both teams had 20 turnovers.

Baruch was led by guard Ryan Graziano who captured scoring honors for the game with 21 points.  Adnan Bajrami  had a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds. He also had 5 assists.  Sean Donnellan had 12 points and Benjamim Boateng had 11.

New Paltz will return to action when they travel to Farmingdale State on Wednesday November 13th for a 7:00 PM contest. I will be interested in that game as my Cardinals will open the season on Friday the 15th against Farmingdale State as well. I'll get a preview of them on Wednesday. Go Hawks.           

[Bengalsrule]

Finally got the season opener out of the way.  Not the result that i had hoped for but encouraged nonetheless. Especially with Kay Grants " nearly" 20 and 10 (9 rebounds actually). Freshman Aaron Davis didn't disappoint either in his first d3 game. 

I know coach Ansari will dot the I's and cross the T's before crosstown Medialle comes to town   I can't wait

Go BENGALS

[magicman]

Nazareth 78  Buffalo State 69

  The Bengals hung with the Golden Flyers for most of the first half but with 6 minutes to go Nazareth had opened a 7 point lead at 30-23. Back to back layups by Kay Grant brought Buff State back within 3 but a 10-0 run by Naz in the final 4 minutes of the period left the Bengals in a 12 point hole at the break.

  Buffalo State managed to cut the gap to single digits after several minutes of the 2nd period but over the next 14 minutes they continued to trail by 7 to 11 points. A 3 pointer from Delen Ramovic narrowed the deficit to 73-67 with 2:29 left but the Bengals came up empty on their next 3 trips, allowing Nazareth to widen the final margin to 78-69.

   Buffalo State got a game high 20 points from 6'5" Senior forward Kay Grant, who just missed a double-double with 9 rebounds. He will be counted on heavily this year if the Bengals are to have any success in conference play.
   Sheldon Adams the 6'2" Junior guard, who is the Bengals' top returning scorer, had 12 points 7 rebounds and 3 assists but has had better nights shooting the rock. They just weren't falling for him, we've all been there.
   Aaron Davis had a good first night for the Bengals. The 5'10" Freshman guard got to start, was 3x5 from the field, made his only 3 point attempt and went 4x6 from the line. He managed 11 points in 24 minutes of floor time and added 2 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.
   Delan Ramovic added 11 points and 5 rebounds as the 6'3" Junior guard came off the bench to contribute 22 minutes of floor time. He was 5x10 from the field and should be an intregal part of the Bengals rotation this year.
     Argjend Imeri a 6'4" Freshman guard got to see his first action as a Bengal and came off the bench for 16 minutes on the court. He took 1 shot from the field, a 3 pointer and drained it for his first collegiate points. He added a pair of assists and a rebound.
 
   Nazareth had 4 players hit double figures led by Kevin Underwood with 16 points and 4 rebounds. Jonathan Park had a double-double of 15 points with 11 rebounds and had 3 blocks. Cody Green chipped in with 12 points and a pair of assists. Stephen Gabel had 10 points, 7 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals and a block.

Shooting stats were fairly even as both teams shot 39%from the field. Buff State was 6x14 from long distance and Naz was 5x18. The Bengals were 17x23 from the stripe and Naz was 21x33. The Golden Flyers had the edge in both rebounding 45 to 38 and in turnovers as they only had 9 giveaways to 16 for Buffalo State. Three of the 4 double figure scorers for Nazareth came off the bench  as they got 52 bench points to just 22 for the Bengals.

Buffalo State will be back in action on Friday November 15th when they host the Coles Classic and will play Medaille College at 8:00 PM. The night will start with Washington and Jefferson taking on Morrisville State at 6:00 PM in the first game.         

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

THat's a pretty good win for Naz, no?  Buff State's no slouch.