MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

Cortland 36 Gywnedd Mercy 30 at the half.

The Griffins not letting Austin Grunder get many touches and the Red Dragons are hoisting up an awful lot of threes which limit Grunder's touches even more. He took 1 shot the entire first half. Not sure I want my leading scorer just getting 1 shot in the opening 20 minutes. Cortland 11 for 32 from the field...22 of those shots were from downtown and they made just 5. They were 6 for 10 inside the arc. Cortland perfect from the line 9 for 9. The Griffins are 8 for10. Red Dragons led by double digits on several occasions but couldn't keep that margin either time.

Cortland led by Eric Edwards with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals and a block. Ben Walters with 10 points, and Ryan Schmadel with 5. Grunder has just 2 points but 5 boards. He needs to have a big 2nd half.

Rich Dunham with 14 points to lead the Griffins. Austin Harriott and Nathaniel Walker both with 6 points.

[magicman]

Cortland defeats Gwynedd Mercy 69-60

[magicman]

Cortland 69  Gwynedd Mercy 60

Cortland led from start to finish in this game but could never quite put the Griffins away. They jumped out to a 14-4 lead and led the entire half. The lead was never less than 4 points and by as many as 11. The Griffins hit a 3 pointer with seconds to go in the first half to cut the lead from 9 to 6 and go into the break down 36-30. 

Gwynedd Mercy came out in the 2nd determined to cut into the Cortland advantage and hit their first two shots to make it a 36-34 game. Back came Cortland, or I should say Ben Walters. After an exchange of baskets Cortland was in front 38-36 when Walters made a layup, then got a steal. Cortland missed on their end but so did the Griffins and this time Walters buried a three. The Griffins came down and hit a jumper and seconds later Walters buried another threeball. The lead was back to 8 points and Cortland once more had some breathing room. The Griffins cut it to 4 points once more but this time Cortland used a 12-2 run and built it back to 14 points with 6 minutes to play. It was all downhill from there and the Red Dragons coasted home.

I mentioned earlier that Cortland needed scoring from other sources in case the Griffins tried to bottle up Austin Grunder. They held Grunder to only 4 points, the first time any team has prevented him from getting a double-double but the Red Dragons got the offensive firepower they needed from Eric Edwards, Ben Walters and Ryan Schmadel.

The Red Dragons in keeping with past history, do like to shoot it from long distance as they fired up 40 shots from behind the arc. However, tonight they only made 10 of those with Walters going 4 x10  and Schmadel hitting 3 of 10.  Jake DiSanto was 2x5 for his 6 points in 8 minutes on the floor. Many times 10x40 from the 3 point line doesn't bode well but the Griffins were even worse, only going 3x21 from distance. Cortland was 22x62 (35.5%) from the field but an almost perfect 15x16 (93.8%) from the line. Gwynedd Mercy was 19x58 (32.8%) from the field and 19x28 (67.9%) from the line.
Cortland had 17 turnovers to just 10 for the Griffins. The Red Dragons made some terrible passes that weren't just stolen, they were picked off allowing the Griffins to score easily, because of where the turnovers took place. The Griffins got 17 points off Cortland turnovers. Grunder and Edwards helped Cortland win the rebounding battle 47 to 36.


Cortland
Eric Edwards had 25 points and 10 boards to get his double-double. He added 2 steals, an assist and a block.

Ben Walters had 18 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals.

Ryan Schmadel had 11 points, 3 reounds and 2 assists in 18 minutes off the bench.

Austin Gunder only had 4 points  but he owned the boards as usual with a game high 15 rebounds.


Gwynedd Mercy
Rich Dunham was the leading scorer in the game with 26 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals.

Austin Harriott had 11 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals.

Nathaniel Walker had 8 points, 6 steals, 2 rebounds and 1 assist.


Cortland improves to 4-2 (1-1 conference) and will be back in action at the Woodcliff Hotel and Spa Tournament hosted by St. John Fisher on December 29th and 30th. The Red Dragons will play Pitt-Bradford on Sunday the 29th at 6:00 PM. Fisher will play SUNY Poly at 8:00 PM. The two winners will play on Monday at 3:00 PM. The 2 losers play at 1:00 PM.

Just a note regarding St John Fisher...They played in Daytona Florida at the  Mauro Pannagio Tournament hosted by Brockport State. They lost to Wooster the first day 81-80 and lost to St. Joseph's (Maine) the 2nd day in the consolation game by a 66-64 score.  Brockport had a win over St. Joe's and a loss to Wooster in that tournament.     

[magicman]

Fisher will play SUNY Poly at 8:00 PM. The two winners will play on Monday at 3:00 PM. The 2 losers play at 1:00 PM.

Just a note regarding St John Fisher...They played in Daytona Florida at the  Mauro Pannagio Tournament hosted by Brockport State. They lost to Wooster the first day 81-80 and lost to St. Joseph's (Maine) the 2nd day in the consolation game by a 66-64 score.  Brockport had a win over St. Joe's and a loss to Wooster in that tournament.     


  Wow.... Must be nice to do 2 tournaments in Florida!

Mr. Rule,
In quoting part of my post I think you must have misread my message. St. John Fisher is hosting the Woodcliff Hotel and Spa Tournament....it's at Fisher's gym in Pittsford NY, not Florida. So yes it must be nice to do 2 tournaments in Florida...but Fisher won't know what that is like!!!     

[magicman]

Dec. 21                          Just a single game on the schedule for today
   

Randolph  vs  New Paltz State     12:00 PM    Cruzin Classic @ Fort Lauderdale, FL

The Hawks take on a team from the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Always a tough game even from bottom of the conference teams, which is where Randolph is. They are 4-6 on the year and 1-2 in the ODAC. 3 of those 4 wins have come against 3 teams who have a combined 5-25 record. The teams are meeting for the first time. The oddsmakers have made the Wildcats a 6 point favorite but I'm not convinced they are better than the Hawks, even though the ODAC is almost always rated stonger then the SUNYAC. Last year a young Buffalo State team played two ODAC teams over the holidays, that were similar to this Randolph team and lost both games but they were close ones. Randolph hasn't had a winning record in over 3 years.   

New Platz is coming off a win and looking to start a streak. I'll take the Hawks to score a mild upset here and win by a final score of 77-75.

[magicman]

Thought I'd watch the New Paltz-Randolph game at noon today. Went to the New Paltz website and they have a link to watch the game and a live stats link as well. Clicked on the watch link and up pops a a screen that says you need to register and it's free. After I registered I went back to the game screen and clicked on the correct game and then I was directed to a page to give them my credit card because it was $8.95 to watch the game......with no commentrary. So I said, screw that, I'll watch something else. I then tried to pull up the live stats from the live stats link that was provided. Up pops another screen that says....sorry live stats are unavailable for this game. Usually when there is no live stats there is no link provided to get them. I even double checked by going to the Randolph website hoping I might find something different but it was the same info. Pay 8.95 and no live stats. D3hoops had a live stats link off their scoreboard for today from Presto Sports but when you click on that, up pops the live stats page showing the correct two teams, but a message saying the game hasn't started yet. That, of course, is because there are no live stats coming from the game site, and that message will be displayed for quite a while. 

This isn't the fault of New Paltz....it's Stretch Internet and the Cruzin Classic that are doing this. Pretty cheap of them to do so for the fans of the teams that can't go to Florida for the game. No other holiday tournament that I've watched in Florida over the past week, and I've watched a bunch of them, has charged for the video. Also every one has had video and live stats both.

I'll just wait for the box score on this one...hope they provide one and don't tell me that's unavailable.... and hopefully without a charge for that as well.    

[Caz Bombers]

New Paltz lost 86-73, box score available on their website

[magicman]

New Paltz lost 86-73, box score available on their website

Yes I got it around 3 PM Saturday afternoon. When I saw the score with no box on D3hoops scoreboard I knew that it wasn't reported to D3hoops so I went to the New Paltz website and they had it fairly early after the game was over. But thanks for the help, always appreciated. Plus K.

[magicman]

Randolph 86  New Paltz 73

I was hoping the Hawks could win one for the YAC but a rough stretch near the end of the first half did them in. The Hawks were up 24-22 with 6:32 left in the period, when they went cold and Randolph had a 14-2 run to open up a 36-26 lead. It happened over a 4 minute period when the Hawks went 1x7 from the field, had 2 turnovers, missed 2 free throws and committed 4 fouls. They ended up trailing by 12 at the break 46-34.

Needing to cut into that lead the Hawks did, briefly, and got it down 8 points when Scott Riesert hit 2 quick buckets inside. The Wildcats wouldn't bend, though and each time the Hawks got it into single digits they responded to build the lead back up. The Hawks were down 9 at 59-50 with 11 minutes to go when Randolph ripped off another big run of 17-3 to put the lights out for the Hawks. The score was now 76-53 and there was 5:47 left to play.

Isaiah Bien-Aise was the top scorer for the Hawks with 13 points and 8 rebounds.

Tristan Wissemann had 12 points and 8 rebounds.

The Hawks fall to 3-5 (0-2 YAC) and are back in action tomorrow against the Wartburg Knights. Once again the game is at 12 Noon and will probably have a charge to watch the game with no announcer and no live stats. 

[magicman]

Dec. 22                     Just one game on the schedule today

   
Wartburg  vs  New Paltz        12:00 PM           Cruzin Classic @ Fort Lauderdale, FL

Forgot about this as I was Christmas shopping. The Hawks face a team that is probably as tough or tougher than the team they played yesterday. Wartburg is from the American Rivers Conference which is also the conference that Nebraska Wesleyan, National Champions from 2 years ago, is a member of. It used to be called the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Whatever it's called the team today, Wartburg, will probably hand the Hawks another loss.

The experts have Wartburg favored by 13 points. It could be worse than that. Final score should be something like Wartburg 88 New Paltz 72.   Hope I'm wrong though.

[thebear]

New Paltz defeats Wartburg 57-56. Jake Passaretti Jump shot with 1:02 left provided the deciding margin. Hawks missed four free throws in the final 1:02, but stymied Wartburg to hang on for the victory.  Tristan Wissemann led the Hawks with 16 pts 8 rebs. Tough shooting night for both teams, as they were both around 30%. NP now 4-5, Wartburg drops to 4-8 on the season.

[magicman]

Merry Christmas to my friends and all the D3 faithful that are regular visitors to this board. Hope the weather is good where you are, you got what you wanted for Christmas, and you're enjoying the holiday with family and friends.

[magicman]

Dec. 28                             Just a single game on tap today

N.C. Wesleyan  vs  Oneonta State     2:00 PM   Brooklyn, NY         Holiday Tournament @ at Medgar Evers

Oneonta travels to the Big Apple to play in the first game of the Medgar Evers Holiday Tournament and they will take on a decent North Carolina Wesleyan team. The Battling Bishops play in the USA South conference. This is the conference where the former coach of Plattsburgh State, Tom Curle has relocated to. Coach Curle is the AD at William Peace College.

This isn't the first time Oneonta has played against teams from the USA South conference. In the 2013-14 season the Red Dragons played Averett and Greensboro on a trip to the south over the New Year's holiday and ended up splitting those games, beating Averett and losing to Greensboro.

Last year North Carolina Wesleyan was the top team in their conference during the regular season. They lost in the conference tournament and did not get an at large bid to the NCAA tournament as the conference is comprised of mostly small schools and usually the conference tournament winner is the only team that goes dancing. NC Wesleyan had a solid team last year and actually beat Guilford from the ODAC conference, 70-65. Guilford made it to the Elite Eight last year, losing to eventual NCAA Championn UW-Oshkosh by an 82-79 score, the closest game that Oshkosh had on their way to the championship. NC-Wesleyan also beat Babson last year by double digits. They were 19-7 overall and brought back 3 of their top scorers this year. Their best player has only played in 2 games, the first game of the year and the game right before Christmas break. He scored 18 and 24 points in those games.

The Battling Bishops come into the game with just a 4-4 record but 3 of those 4 losses were without their best player and all four losses were to good teams. The oddsmakers have made Oneonta a slim 3 point favorite in this one. If they win this game the Red Dragons will need a solid effort because NC Wesleyan is deep, tall, and they have a bunch of scorers. I'll take Oneonta to win a close one 78-75 but won't be surprised if NC Wesleyan gets the win.     

[magicman]

Oneonta State trails North Carolina Wesleyan 41-35 at the half.

The Red Dragons were down by 14 points at 28-14 after the Battling Bishops put together a 14-3 run midway through the period. Oneonta came back to close within 3 points with 6 seconds remaining but NCW got a 3 pointer at the buzzer to make it a 6 point game at the break.

Oneonta is led by Andres Rivera with 10 points and 5 rebounds. Kevin Mackin has 9 points and 2 assists.


NC Wesleyan got 13 points from A.J. Frye. Cameron Martin and Damon McDowell have 7 each.

[magicman]

Oneonta 82 North Carolina Wesleyan 77  final score.

The Red Dragons come back from a double digit deficit in the 2nd half that was almost as big as they trailed in the first half. In the first period Oneonta was losing 28-14 and got within 3 points at 38-35.  In the 2nd period they trailed 58-45 before coming all the way back and grabbing the win.   

Live stats stopped working with 10 minutes remaining in the game so have to wait for the box score to give the summary.