MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[mhm0417]

Going to be many blowouts in conference play this year.

[jdex]

Cortland and Potsdam both bow in tight Nazareth tourney first round Friday tussles, RDragons by 55-49 count to RPI before Pdam takes 82-73 tumble to Nazareth. All four teams in season openers.
    Cortland and RPI in defensive struggle but more like some ragged offense, moreso on RDragons' part. Corts come from 10 back to within 31-24 at half and pull even at 46 on A. Coston FTs at 3:17. D. Matchett FTs at 2:06 send RPI up for good. Matchett 12 pts -- all in the second half, pace Engineers. Returning All-SUNYAC pair of K. Arcuri (5x9fg, 3x6 3s, 6reb) and Coston net 14 apiece for Cortland. Arcuri scores first eight Dragon points, but sits final 13 minutes of first half with two fouls. Newcomer J. Davis with 10pts, 7reb for Corts who go 5x7 to RPI 13x24 free throwing.
    Potsdam makes second half surge to rally from 44-32 halftime deficit. N. Cortez drains a bucket with 11:49 left for 49-48 Bear lead. And with four minutes to play Pdam's W. deFreitas deuce forges 67-65 edge. Bears down just 76-73 at 1:11 on another Defreitas hoop. He pours in 24 pts(8x17fg, 3x9 3s, 5x6ft) and M. Sylla 19pts (7x15fg, 4x9 3s).
    Cortland, Potsdam in Saturday consi.

Oswego outscores Muhlenberg 41-21 in the second half for 79-65 Friday win in Rochester tourney start. D. Judd, 6-6 frosh, has 15pts in 21' for Lakers whose soph S. Bradley has 16pts in 27'. Face UR/Muskingum OH winner on Saturday.

Buffalo St. nipped 71-69 at the buzzer by tourney host Hilbert. Steal at 0:03 by N. Moore leads to Q. Briggs deciding hoop. N. Severson 19 pts (6x7 3s) top Bengal scorers, Hilbert's E. Shaheem with 28(9x18fg)

New SUNYACer Canton flattened 98-70 by former SUNYACer Brockport in Cleveland OH where host Case Western Reserve belts Penn St. Altoona 99-72. Consi and final Saturday

[jdex]

Cortland rolls over Potsdam 94-83 in Saturday Nazareth tourney consi. RDragons shoot (10x19 3s) to 52-35 intermission lead which grows to 21 with 12:42 left. Still in 19 pt command at 5:08. Bears shave to 9 at 2:35 on M. Sylla goal. Pacing Corts are K. Arcuri 23pts (7x14, 3x8 3s, 6x7ft, 10reb); J. Davis 16reb in 25'; J. Warmack 17pts; A Coston 16pts, 7reb; K. Wilson 11pt (3x6 3s) in initial appearance; G. Beaubrun 10pt. Net 15x38 3s and with 51-35 board gap. For Pdam, Sylla 19pts; W. deFreitas 18pt (8x16fg); N. Cortez 16pt; K. Parker 14pt.
  Teams meet again Dec. 6 in C-land to open league activity
  RPI captures Nazareth tourney crown 60-54, climbing out of 26-21 halftime hole

Oswego downs Muskingum OH 79-67 to capture Rochester tourney title at Palestra. MVP A. Anderson with 17pts (7x13fg, 5asst) and all-tourney S. Bradley 14pts (5x8, 3x5 3s), X. Allen 13pts (4x8fg). Lakers 20x24ft to Muskies 7x14, and 41-24reb advantage. Muskingum reaches final shading Rochester 79-76. UR claims coni over Muhlenberg 82-64.

Buffalo St. 69-63 consi winner over Lycoming in Hilbert tourney. B. Williams 17pts (6x11fg) for Bengals. Hilbert bows 80-75 in final to Franciscan OH.

Canton 93-83 victim of Penn St. Altoona in Cleveland OH Case Western Reserve third place contest. Canton comes from 19 down to take 49-48 halftime lead but falters later. B. Streb in defeat tallies 28 (13x15ft, 7reb). Championship tilt sees Brockport edged 101-99 by CWR in double OT.

[Greek Tragedy]

Unfortunate that conference does have to meet up in a noncon matchup. They could've just swapped 1st night's opponents to avoid that.

[jdex]

Ithaca outpoints Cortland 65-58 at IC in ragged Wednesday contest. Bombers erase 34-29 deficit and basically outhustle RDragons who shoot just 33 percent from the field and commit 20 turnovers in fast but loosely played matchup. Final score largest lead of the game. CSt last lead at 47-46 with nine minutes left. IC's L. Wendell with 21pts (6x12fg, 2x5 3, 7x10ft, 6reb, 3stl)in 34'; C. Leysath 16pts (8x12fg), 13 reb in 33'. For CSt J. Davis 12pts(6x11fg, 15reb; K. Arcuri 10pts (3x13fg); J. Warmack 10pts, 7assts. Corts 1-2, IC 2-1

Oswego beaten 45-44 by St. Lawrence
Oneonta whips Hartwick 100-87
Fredonia toppled by Hilbert 89-84
Canton loses 53-44 to Clarkson on Tuesday

[stlawus]

Ithaca outpoints Cortland 65-58 at IC in ragged Wednesday contest. Bombers erase 34-29 deficit and basically outhustle RDragons who shoot just 33 percent from the field and commit 20 turnovers in fast but loosely played matchup. Final score largest lead of the game. CSt last lead at 47-46 with nine minutes left. IC's L. Wendell with 21pts (6x12fg, 2x5 3, 7x10ft, 6reb, 3stl)in 34'; C. Leysath 16pts (8x12fg), 13 reb in 33'. For CSt J. Davis 12pts(6x11fg, 15reb; K. Arcuri 10pts (3x13fg); J. Warmack 10pts, 7assts. Corts 1-2, IC 2-1

Oswego beaten 45-44 by St. Lawrence
Oneonta whips Hartwick 100-87
Fredonia toppled by Hilbert 89-84
Canton loses 53-44 to Clarkson on Tuesday

Cortland has a great player in Joel Davis.  North Country kid who was the best player in the area his senior year, and looks like he's developed quite a bit already. 

[thebear]

Unfortunate that conference does have to meet up in a noncon matchup. They could've just swapped 1st night's opponents to avoid that.

That would have made good sense, esp considering the hosts lost the "championship" game. 

[jdex]

Oneonta wins its tourney Sunday with uphill 86-81 trimming of Westfield St. MA. Intermission has RDragons down 44-35. Finally in 58-58 knot with 8:32 to go. Nip and tuck in stretch run. OSt 35x42ft does the job. L. Zyeir 24pts (7x11fg, 10x12ft, 12reb, 30'), X. Hill 21pts (6x10fg, 9x12ft).
   In Saturday first round Oneonta routs Elmira 80-51 Saturday first round. RDragon dozen with points, Zyeir 14 (7x9fg, 21'), Hill 10 (4x7fg, 19'). Westfield St. turns back Miss. U for Women 83-70.

Morrisville captures its Mustang tourney by 71-67 Sunday tally over Manhattanvlle. Hosts trail 27-26 at half. Y. Fils-Aime 19 pts, 12 reb; J. Moorehead 19 pts, 4x8 3s.
   First round has Mustangs crushing Vermont Lyndon 91-50 in Mustangs....41-21 at half. J. Works 18pts (7x13fg, 20'). M'ville 15 score, 34x67fg. Manhattanville defeats Syracuse ESF Mighty Oaks 88-60.

Plattsburgh nosed at Norwich VT 70-64. Cards by 37-36. Hosts 25x31ft. Burgh's K. Welch off bench for 23pts (7x13fg, 2x3 3s, 7x8ft, 11reb, 3assts, 2stls, 30').

Fredonia edged at Grove City PA 74-70 after leading by 15 in taking 37-30 half lead. Tied at 70 with 0:51 left; GC by two at 0:28. BDevil B. Kulakowski 20pts in 34', M. Garza 16 (4x5 3s) in 32'.

Potsdam drops 87-59 home issue to Utica as UC handsomely expands 36-27 half margin. Winning Pioneers 31x55fg including 21x27fg from starters. Bears M. Sylla 19pts (8x17 fg, 6reb, 5pf, 31'), N. Cortez 17pts (7x12fg, 28')

[jdex]

Totally outplayed for a half, Cortland may have come of age in the second period of Monday night's 67-62 loss to Rochester in RDragons home opener. UR pulled away into 44-27 command through 20 minutes by which time 10 Yellowjackets score. Cortland later pulls momentum switcheroo. J. Davis provides major spark and G. Armbrewster flips home two treys making it 59-58 at 3 minutes. A. Coston two free throws at 2:25 give Dragons 60-59 lead. UR's N. Sock immediately lands straight-on triple and at 0:31 L. Jagodzinski makes fallaway baseline bucket. Coston bucket at 0:15 cuts UR lead to 64-62 and guests' FTs close it out.
    Coston with 23pts (9x14fg, 2x5 3s, 3x3ft, 11reb, 3blk, 35'); Davis 9pts, 9reb. UR's Jagodzinski 17pts (7x14, 9reb); Sock 11pts (3x6 3s, 8reb); C. Oprea 10pts; E. McEachern 6assts.
    Corts 1-3 and idle till Dec. 6 home conference game vs. Potsdam. UR 3-1

[jdex]

Oswego thwarts former conference foe Brockport 78-72 Tuesday at Bport. Lakers back on track after stunning 45-44 loss to St. Lawrence six days earlier. X. Allen leads the way past GEagles with 24pts (10x17fg, 4x7 3s) in 23'. S. Bradley 13pts, Geneseo transfer K. Cole 12pts, A. Foster 10pts. A. Anderson with seven of OSt 21 assists, plus five steals. Lakers hike 35-29 halftime lead to 11. Port within 2 at 5:39 but Allen trey comes seconds later. Lakers 10 up at 3:15.
  Oswego 3-1, Bport 1-4

Plattsburgh tumbles 66-56 at home to St. Lawrence. Scant second half lead for Cards beyond 28-27 halftime deficit. Late Larries runs build hefty differences ...62-48 at one stage. K. Tabb with 15 Pburgh points (4x12fg, 6x6ft, 26').
    Pburgh 1-2, SL 2-1

[stlawus]

Good effort from Oneonta tonight against Williams.  Down 1 in the last minute and got the short end of the stick on an out of bounds call. 

[nescac1]

The out of bounds call that stlawus refers to was the correct one (the initial ref who had a bad angle got it wrong, it was clearly off Oneonta).  Overall, while I'm biased, I'd say the reffing helped Oneonta in this one.  They are a hard team to ref as they constantly drive hard into the teeth of the defense but yesterday they were generating free throws on a lot of those drives when Williams defenders seemed fairly well positioned. Certainly a team strength as they have made more than twice as many free throws as their opponents this season (helps that they convert FTAs at a very high rate as well).  There were also some cryptic non-calls on what sure seemed like travels by Oneonta.   

Xavier Hill is an extremely difficult player to guard inside, he's incredibly strong and relentless down low with great footwork and a soft touch, he's not averaging 24-11 by accident - the kind of stocky low post player you don't see much anymore, but Williams did a good job of swarming and harassing him into a 7-19 shooting night.  Another guy who is hard to ref as he both dishes out and receives a lot of punishment inside.   

Oneonta's weakness is definitely outside shooting, they seemed to brick a lot of jumpers today which allowed the defense to collapse on the interior. They need to guard the three point line better to help compensate; the Ephs has a lot of open looks and went 7-12 despite not being (I expect) a very strong outside shooting team this season. 

[stlawus]

I thought Oswego would be down this year but not by much, yet they just lost 2 consecutive SUNYAC games for the first time in several years.  Thought Anderson might have still been hurt but he showed up in both box scores.   If Oswego is losing to Morrisville and Cortland the league is completely wide open.  Cortland, New Paltz, Oneonta, Oswego and potentially Morrsiville could all win the league at this rate.  You can find several comments from me last year saying last season was the time for Oswego to put it all together with it being the last year of their dominant era's core.  They bowed out in the first round and then had to replace a string of 5th years which they are feeling this season.  They brought in a couple grad students but it's just not the same when you had a group of players play with each other over the course of 5 years.

[mhm0417]

Agreed.  It's wide open this year.

[jdex]

Cortland continues winning ways with 78-59 Tuesday romp at Buffalo St. where I. Austin torrid hand ignites RDragons to fourth straight conquest. Austin lands 18 points on six 3-pointers during Cortland 21-7 breakout over the first eight minutes. Finishes 21 point night with what else -- a trey in closing moments of 45-25 opening half. Jr. Austin winds up 7x13fg,  7x11 3s in 31' stint.
  Soph J. Davis scores 20 (8x15fg, 4x7 3s), adds 10rebs, 4assts; K. Arcuri 10pts; A. Coston 7pts, 7rebs in hiking league leading record to 5-1, 6-7 overall. Buff St. 2-4, 4-9. Coming off big win over Oswego, resurgent Dragon run parallels returns of Davis and Coston from separate absences.
  Just how far Cortland goes could be determined by upcoming trips to New Paltz (Fri) and Oneonta (Sat).

   New Paltz (4-1, 8-4) given huge scare at Canton. Hawks survive 76-66, shaking free of 65-65 tie at 2:01. NP by 38-32 at half. Tight affair nearly entire final period. Roos 0-5, 0-12

   Plattsburgh (2-3, 5-7) over host Potsdam (2-3, 2-9) by 86-69.
   Morrisville (3-2, 7-5) at Fredonia ppd by travel; Oswego and Oneonta idle