MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[Bengalsrule]

The SUNYAC is off and Running.

My Oneonta Red Dragons did not get off to a good start.
I know it's early, but it would have been nice if they came out the gate a little better.

Happy to see that the Plattsburgh Cardinals and the Buffalo State Bengals are off to good starts.
The season is always better when the Magicman and Bengalsrule are Happy campers.

The Magicman as always is on top of his game with his game analysis.
It's as if I'm at the game.

WE all know that Cam will have his dragons breathing serious fire come February!

The YAC is BACK!

[magicman]

Tuesday   Nov. 19   

Eight teams in action today with some interesting matchups. Four games will feature a Liberty League team vs a SUNYAC team. The top 4 SUNYAC teams from last year will play the LL's 2nd 3rd 4th and 9th place teams from last year. The numbers in parentheses are the place the team finished last year. Interesting that the first three  LL  vs YAC games listed below are #3 vs #3, #4 vs #4 and #2 vs #2. Also feel that they are all fairly even games and could all go either way.   
   

Hobart (LL #3)  at  Brockport State (YAC #3)    LL  vs  SUNYAC   5:30 PM

Brockport looking for a little payback as they lost a close one to Hobart last year in Geneva by a 79-75 final score. Port let that one get away as they had a 75-68 lead with just 4:30 left to play, but they never scored another point. The Golden Eagles missed their last 8 shots and had 2 turnovers to allow the Statesmen to claim the victory. That one had to hurt, so revenge would be sweet. The teams have met 8 times in the past 10 years with 5 of those games taking place in Hobart's gym. They've split those 8 games but the Statesmen haven't won in their 3 visits to Brockport.

Hobart opened their season with a win over NYU while Port dropped another close game, this time to Morrisville. That loss was almost a carbon copy of the Hobart loss from last year, as once again the Golden Eagles had a 6 point lead with under 5 minutes to play. They were 1x8 from the field with 2 turnovers and lost by 3 points. Hoping some lessons were learned and they can close out their games a little better.

The point spread has Brockport favored by 4 points. Port didn't have Antonio Alvarez, one of their best 3 point shooters in the opening game. I hope he's available tonight.  I'm taking Brockport to win this one 77-74       

   
Fredonia State  at  Waynesburg     PAC  vs SUNYAC   6:00 PM

The Blue Devils are also looking for some revenge as they dropped a 3 point 81-78 decision to Waynesburg last year at home. This year they travel to Pennslyvania and try to turn the tables. Both teams return much from last year so it should be another competitive matchup. The Yellow Jackets are favored by a single point and are looking for their first win as they lost a pair of games to John Carroll and Allegheny College. Both losses were by 20 points. Fredonia looking to eclipse last year's win total with a victory tonight. I'll take the Blue Devils to win a close one 73-70.

   
Geneseo State  at  Alfred         Empire 8 vs SUNYAC       7:00 PM

The Knights defeated Alfred last year and the Saxons had a pretty good team. And the Knights beat them by 16 points. This Alfred team won the Empire 8 conference regular season, then won the conference tournament to go dancing and won a first round game in the tournament. They only had 5 losses and 2 of them were to teams in the YAC, with Brockport being the other team. They did lose considerable firepower from that team but still return 2 starters and 3 solid rotation players from last year. Freshman guard Mike Schmidt is starting and averaging 11 ppg. They will be a handful for the Knights and the Saxons will be hopeful it's their turn tonight on their home court. The Saxons are favored by 9 points in this one but I'll take Geneseo and hope they can make amends for their last outing against Gettysburg.  Geneseo 72 Alfred 69

   
Ithaca (#4)  at  Cortland State (4)             LL vs SUNYAC      7:00 PM

Maybe the Red Dragons can avenge the loss the Cortland football team had to Ithaca over the weekend in Met Life Stadium. The annual Cortaca Jug game was played in front of 45,161 people making it the largest attendance of any DIII football game in history. The Red Dragons lost the game 32-20 but it was 26-20 late in the 4th quarter before Ithaca made it a 2 possesion game with 3 minutes to go. Cortland lost because the best player from ithaca...their quarterback, ran for 3 touchdowns (1 yd, 1yd, and 10 yds) and passed for 2 more (23 yds and 46 yds). Ironic part was the quarterback played at Brockport for the last 3 years and transferred to Ithaca this year hoping to make the NCAA tourney. More irony...Ithaca lost the Liberty League automatic bid to Union who beat them 31-21 and Brockport won the Empire 8 conference and got their automatic bid. Brockport will be dancing and Ithaca will stay home.

Back to hoops though....Cortland won their opening game with a last second 3 pointer by Ryan Schmadel that gave them an 87-86 victory over SUNY-Purchase. Somehow after leading for the first 10 minutes of the game they ended up down by 11 with under 2 minutes in the half. They cut the gap to 8 points at the break but found the deficit twice as large with 13:32 left in the game and trailing by a 16 point margin at 61-45. They fought back to get it to a 2 possession game with 9:34 to go and then finally down to a single trip with 6 minutes to go to tie or take the lead, but couldn't seem to get over that hump. With under a minute left and down by 3, Cortland rebounded a Panther's miss, and Coach Spanbauer took a timeout. They got the ball to Jake DiSanto who made his 3rd shot of the second half. It was his 3rd bucket from long distance, and it tied the score at 84 with 38 seconds to go. Purchase called time out, got fouled with 16 seconds left and sank 2 free throws. That set the stage for Schmadel's game winner and he broke their hearts when it went in.

Ithaca has opened the season 1-1 with a loss to Oswego State and a win over host Elmira in the consolation game of the Elmira Tip Off Tournament over the weekend. Oswego led by as much as 18 points over the Bombers in the first half and settled for a 12 point edge at the break. The largest lead of the 2nd half was 13 points but Ithaca hung in there and stayed within striking distance. The Lakers couldn't seem to put them away and on several occasions the Bombers were as close as 4 points before Oswego would open it back up to create more daylight. Cortland will have their hands full and I think this game could go down to the wire.

The oddsmakers have made Cortland a slim 2 point favorite in this one. I think they're correct and see a final score of 83-81 with the Red Dragons on top.         

   
Williams  at  Oneonta State        NESCAC vs SUNYAC        7:00 PM

Williams will be a tall order for these Red Dragons....literally! The Ephs have a bunch of tall bodies as 13 of their 15 players are 6'3" or taller and most of them are of that..."or taller" variety. 5 guys are 6'5", 4 guys are 6'8", 1 is 6'7 and 1 is 6'11". Their last game against SUNYIT  they started 4 players that were 6'5" and 1 that was 6'8".  When they bring in a sub he's bigger than the guy that was on the floor. The Ephs lost a lot from last year but they always reload, they're a NESCAC school and have no problem getting their share of talent from around the country. Remember Duncan Robinson, who was a promising freshman a few years ago. So promising that he took his talents to Michigan for 2 years and now laces em up for the Miami Heat. They probably don't have another Duncan Robinson, but they have a few freshman who look promising.

Oneonta has lost the last 3 games they've played against Williams after winning the first two times they squared off against them. They would also like to turn their season opening losing streak around as well, since they lost both games of their weekend tournament. Pretty sure that was not the plan when it was drawn up. They let the Alvernia game get away from them after leading by 5 with 1:29 to play and they were right back in the same place the next day when they had a double digit lead that turned into a double digit deficit.
They are too good of a team to continue to play like this.

Having said that, they will be hard pressed to get a W in this game tonight. The oddsmakers have listed the Red Dragons as a 12 point underdog and I can't pick them to win this game either. They were outrebounded by a sizable margin against Wesley and the Ephs will be even harder to keep off the glass. I can see Oneonta beating the spread but have them losing this one 82-73. Sure hope I'm wrong.           


Potsdam State (#8)  at  DI Albany (N.Y.)        7:00 PM

No idea what will happen here. I hope the Bears can score at least 50 points and hold the Great Danes to less than 100. Hoping for something like a final score of  95-59.    I would consider that a victory. 


St. Lawrence (#2)  at  Plattsburgh State (#2)       LL vs  SUNYAC   7:30 PM

The Saints will march into Memorial Hall with a chance to grab just their 2nd win in the last 11 years as Plattsburgh holds a 9-1 record over that stretch. The Saints won at home 2 years ago but have come up empty the last 2 years and with the Cardinals' starting five from last season, lost to graduation, the Saints have hopes of starting a streak. The problem is that the Saints are kind of in a rebuilding mode of their own as they lost 4 of their top 6 guys. Plattsburgh is 1-1 on the season with a loss to a decent team and a win over a not too decent team. The Saints are 0-1, having lost to Potsdam State when the Bears put up 63 points on them last week. Not 63 points in the game.....63 points in the first half, and coasted to a 10 point win. The Saints have a lot of young faces but so do the Cardinals, who started 3 freshman in both of their games over the weekend. SLU only started 1 freshman.

The Cardinals are favored to win this game by 10 points but I think that's a few too many. I think the outcome could go either way depending on who has the better night shooting the rock. I'll be surprised if either team blows out the other. I'll take my Cardinals of course, but think they only win it by an 80-75 final score.   

 


Oswego State (#1)  at  Clarkson (#9)        LL vs SUNYAC        7:30 PM

The only  YAC-Liberty League that doesn't match the place they finished in as the Golden Knights were near the bottom of the LL and the Lakers were on top of the YAC.

Clarkson seems to be on the upswing as they've started out with a pair of wins. Still too early to tell how good the teams are that they defeated but I'm guessing they wouldn't be looked upon as quality wins. Oswego has owned the Knights over the past 4 years and is 5-1 against them in the last 10 years. But 3 years ago the Knights took the Lakers to overtime before losing and 2 years before that they won when the Lakers were 17-10. So yeah, they're a hocky school (meaning Clarkson not the Lakers, even though the Lakers are a hockey school as well) but the guys on the basketball team don't think that way. So Oswego needs to take care of business so they don't get taken care of. 

The point spread for this game has the Lakers favored by 11 points. I think that Oswego should cover that spread.  I think the final score will be something like Oswego  88  Clarkson 76

[thebear]

My Bears trail traditional rival [Now D-I] U-Albany 34-26 at the half Bears closed within 27-26 before a 7 point Danes run before halftime.

[thebear]

Brockport Edges Hobart 75-74

[thebear]

Fredonia and Wayneburg tied 28-28 at the half

[thebear]

A bit of a surprise, Clarkson leads Oswego Lakers 26-24 late in the first half.

[stlawus]

What a surprise, another game Downs loses because he stays in the zone.   Play man to man SLU wins this game. 

[magicman]

Final Scores for Tuesday night   

SUNYAC went 5-3 overall  3-1 with our matchups against the Liberty League.

Big win by Oneonta in overtime against Williams.

Plattsburgh State 89  St Lawrence 84.               
I had Plattsburgh winning this one 80-75. Had the 5 point margin right on.

Oswego State 80 Clarkson 72                           
Not far off from my 88-76 prediction

Potsdam State 52  DI Albany 78                       
We scored 50 and held them under a 100 which I consider a win  I said 95-59 so holding them to 78 was really good. Heard the great Danes big man was out though so that helped the Bears. Still a good result for Potdsdam.

Oneonta State  74 Williams 69 in Overtime     
I had Williams beating the Red Dragons by a 82-73 final. But it was really a reverse logic plan of mine to get a win for Coach Conover. Twice I picked them to win last week and they burned me both times. So I figured I'd pick them to lose and they would win to burn me again. Works every time and who better to have it work against when it's Williams and the mighty NESCAC. Plus Coach Conover needed a win against the Ephs...he hadn't beaten them in 3 tries. Great job Oneonta,

Brockport State 75 Hobart 74
Just missed perfection on this one. I had it Port 77 and Hobart 74 I need to find out who missed the chippy.....OK just checked the box score and I'm blaming it on Danny Ashley. He missed all 4 of his free throws. If he goes just 50%  I make the perfect prediction. I'll be having words with him when he visits Plattsburgh on Jan. 11th.                         

Fredonia State  77 Waynesburg  64
Was close here as well. I had Fredonia winning 73-70. My 145 total was only 2 pts off.


Cortland State 74  Ithaca  77
Missed this one as I had Cortland winning by an 83-81 total. Ithaca is Cortland's Daddy thsi week with the two Cortaca wins in football and hoops.

Geneseo State 52 Alfred 58
Another one I missed   and the one I was most afraid of missing. I had the Knights winning 72-69 but Geneseo is showing the same inconsistency as last year. They went huge stretches in this game without scoring much. 5:30 seconds at the start of the 2nd half and they scored 2 points. Then another 5 minutes stretch where they only scored 2 points.

[magicman]

Plattsburgh State 89  St Lawrence 84

Great game tonight at Memorial Hall in Plattsburgh. The fans got their money's worth in an exciting game that wasn't decided until the final few seconds. Both teams played hard and fast with the refs letting them play the first half (only 10 fouls called, 5 per side) before exercising their whistles a bit more in the 2nd period (22 fouls called 13 on the Saints and 9 on the Cards).

SLU quickly went on top and threatened to make the game a one sided affair, but the Cardinals settled down, hit a couple of 3 pointers and after falling behind by an 11-3 count managed to tie the score at 17 with 12:47 to play. After a Saints turnover, Nick DeAngelis did what he does best and drained a three to give Plattsburgh their first lead at 20-17. The rest of the period had the teams trading baskets with no more than a 2 possession lead. The Saints were up 41-38 when DeAngelis got his own rebound and fed Cameron Ness for a layup, that ended the half with the Cards down 41-40.

The 2nd period started out with 2 lead changes and a tie at 46 all with 18 minutes still to play and once again Nick DeAngelis went to the long ball and hit back to back three pointers, 30 seconds apart to give the Cardinals a 6 point lead. The Saints made two trips to the line going 1 of 2 each time but in between those free throws, Cameron Ness was getting free inside and making layups for Plattsburgh.  Seconds later, Marlon Todd, who had just entered the game for Plattsburgh, buried another three and the Cardinals had the first double digit lead of the night at 60-48. Plattsburgh continued to have the edge in play and gradually extended the advantage to to the largest of the night at 16 points, 68-52 with 10:28 on the clock.  Five minutes later the Saints had cut that lead in half and were back in the game. The teams traded 3 pointers, they traded two pointers and finally another 3 ball by Axel Rodriguez put the Cards back up by a comfortable 11 points with just 3:12 left to play. The Lead was still 11 with 1:49 left to go. Time to light up the cigar....not so fast said the Saints. SLU's Andrew Geschickter hit a three pointer, then got a steal and fed Brandon Arnold for an easy layup. The Cards committed another turnover and SLU quickly called a time out down by 6. Five seconds after the inbound pass when play resumed, Geschickter buried another one from downtown and the margin was just 3 points, It took only 46 seconds to cut the lead from 11 down to 3. It may well be the fastest I've ever seen that happen in Plattsburgh. The Cards then came down, missed on their end and the Saints scored again with 25 seconds left, to trail by a single point at 85-84. The Saints had to foul, putting Travis Cox on the line and he made both pressure packed free throws to increase the lead to three. SLU came down and fired up a three that was way off the mark (as I was yelling... foul them... foul them....don't let them shoot a three.) Saints fouled again and Axel Rodriguez made another pair to close out the scoring.

Plattsburgh State may not make the conference playoffs this year, but you will know, that when these guys take the floor, they play hard and don't quit. The 3 freshman who are starting are gaining valuable experience that they wouldn't ordinarily be getting as freshman on a team with a number of veterans. With only 11 players on the roster this year due to some unforseen reasons they are being asked to do things most first year players won't do for a year or two down the road. These young men are coming on strong and Plattsburgh, with its new head coach will be the better for it... sooner not later.

Nick DeAngelis captured scoring honors in tonight's game as he once again came off the bench and provided a big lift at the right moments. He had 20 points on 7x15 shooting and hit 4x9 from downtown. He added 5 rebounds 3 steals and 2 assists.

Jeremy Eisenman is shooting lights out so far this season and once again set a new career high with 18 points shooting 6x14 from the field. He was 5 of 8 from long distance which means he was only 1 for 6 from inside the arc. Jeremy please stay behind the line. He added 5 rebounds 2 steals and 1 helper.

Travis Cox had his time on the floor limited by foul trouble but still managed to score 14 points on 5x11 from the field and 4x4 from the line. He also had 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 assists and a block.

The freshman:
Cameron Ness had another double-double tonight of 15 points and a game high 12 rebounds. He was 7x9 from the field. He chipped in with a pair of assists and a steal. He is now averaging 15.3 ppg and 9.7 rebounds per game. And I know it's only 3 games into the season but I'm willing to bet that at the end of the season he'll be fairly close to those numbers. One more thing....18 players played in tonight's game. Cameron was the biggest player on the floor at 6'10" tall. He played 38 minutes and 20 seconds of a 40 minute game. More than anybody else in the contest.

Axel Rodriguez played the 2nd most minutes in the game with 37:16 minutes of court time. The point guard scored 12 points, had 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.

Erik Salo had another solid game tonight with 10 rebounds, 7 points, 4 assists on several nice plays underneath and 3 steals. He reminds me of our recently graduated rebounding phenom Ian Howard....see ball... get ball.  These 3 guys are going to be the backbone  of some excellent Plattsburgh basketball teams down the road.

St. Lawrence also features a young team that will only get better. They had 5 guys in double figures led by Junior Brandon Arnold and Sophomore Luke Hicks with 17 points apiece. Freshman Trent Adamson and Freshman Andrew Geschickter had 14 points each and Adamson just missed a double-double with 9 rebounds. These two guys could be fighting it out for Rookie of the Year honors in the Liberty League. I'd give the edge to Adamson right now and think he will be an All Conference performer as soon as next year possibly.
Junior Chris Jeffrey did have a double-double of 10 points and 10 boards.

The Saints could be in the same boat as the Cardinals this year and struggle at times to come up with wins, that should have been theirs. But next year the Saints will be competing for the Liberty League title and they could, with hard work, make a playoff run this year.


Plattsburgh improves to 2-1 and will return to action on Thursday night November 21st, when they travel to the Utica area to take on SUNY POLY at 7:00 PM.   (Why can't they just call it Utica State or Utica Tech or even SUNY UTICA since they got that whole SUNY thing going on. The poor school used to be Utica-Rome, then it was SUNYIT and now it's SUNYPOLY. It's never had a good name and SUNY POLY just sounds so bad...OK rant over)

St. Lawrence is now 0-2 and will play crosstown rival Canton  next Tuesday November 26th at 2:00 PM.                         

[magicman]

Wednesday Nov. 20                           Just a single game on tap today

New Paltz State  @  Sage        7:00 PM

The Hawks won this matchup last year 77-72 in New Paltz. This year the game is at Sage. The Gators are 3-1 so far with their best game beng a 77-73 win over SUNY Purchase. Cortland had to drain a 3 pointer at the buzzer last weekend to beat Purchase 87-86. So the logic goes if Purchase can play with Cortland and Sage can beat Purchase then they shoud be able to hang with the Hawks. The guys that make the point spread feel the same way as they have the Hawks as a slim 3 point favorite. This should be a close game that could go either way. I'll stay on the Hawks and pick them to win by an 86-82 final score.     

[All-Time]

Pretty Good night for the SUNYAC.

My Oneonta Red Dragons came through with A BIG WIN last night against Williams.
Don't think they have beaten Williams since the 2014-2015 team won at Williams the first time these teams met.

Need to keep it going against Hartwick.

Let's Go Red Dragons, Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[amh63]

Want to let the Red Dragons know that I appreciate their win over Williams last night
Better yet, it was a game that allowed Amherst, my school, evaluate the Ephs....Amherst's "biggest" conference rival.  In overtime yet!

[magicman]

Pretty Good night for the SUNYAC.

My Oneonta Red Dragons came through with A BIG WIN last night against Williams.
Don't think they have beaten Williams since the 2014-2015 team won at Williams the first time these teams met.

Need to keep it going against Hartwick.

Let's Go Red Dragons, Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Oneonta also beat Williams the following year, 2015-16 in Oneonta by a score of 75-62. The next year the Ephs returned the favor in Willytown by an almost identical score of 74-62 to start a 3 year streak of Williams' wins. So this series has been one of short streaks. Last night the Red Dragons put up their 74 points to, hopefully, start their own streak. The series now stands at 3-3. Interesting fact.... neither team has scored more than 75 points in the 6 games of this series. I think the scores are so similar year after year that it's D3hoops' version of Groundhog Day when these 2 teams meet.   

[magicman]

New Paltz 29 Sage 30 at the break.

Isaiah Bien-Aise hits a 3 pointer just as the buzzer sounds to pull the Hawks within a point at halftime. He leads the Hawks with 11 points and 3 rebounds.  Richard Altenord has 9 points and 2 rebounds. Nick Arthur has 5 points and 5 boards.

The Gators are led by Jalon Borders with 10 points and 3 rebounds.  Stuart Phair has 7 points and 9 rebounds.

Sage with an early 8 point lead and stayed in front most of the period with a 2 or 3 possession lead. The Hawks kept gaining until they took the lead at 26-25 on a pair of free throws by Altenord with 2 minutes left in the period.

[amh63]

Needed to clear up my previous post here. 
It is hard to beat Williams, even in an Ephs rebuilding year.  Big win for the Red Dragons.  Amherst's battles...twice a year...with Williams are just that...battles. 
Magicman knows about Nescac internal conference games.  Am aware of the SUNYAC schools.  Daughter works in Ithaca and her family resides in the village of Groton.  Am sure the the HC of Amherst has noted the Oneonta win.