Plattsburgh State defeats Oswego State 89-75.
The final score was fairly close to my prediction of 83-76. The Lakers only missed my total for them by a point and the Cardinals got a few easy baskets toward the end of the game to make their score a few more than my crystal ball foretold.
The teams went through 4 ties and 7 lead changes in the first ten minutes of play until Plattsburgh finally opened up some daylight and went in front by double digits. Down 17-16, the Cards got a steal and a pass by Nick DeAngelis to Eric Mack for a nice dunk. Then after Oswego missed on their end, DeAngelis buried a threeball and the Lakers called a timeout. Oswego scored to make it 21-19 but the Cardinals would get another score from Mack, and a pair of three pointers from Eli Bryant, to make it 29-19 with 7:13 left in the period. Plattsburgh continued to build on that lead after the Lakers were only down, 32-26, by getting another dunk followed by a layup from Mack and then getting a pair of inside baskets from Jon Patron. A pair of free throws from Isaiah Hill and a three pointer from Chris Middleton had the cards in front 45-28 with 41 seconds remaining. Josh Ivey scored for Oswego to cut the lead to 15, 45-30 at the half.
A 7-2 start to open the 2nd period had the Cardinals in front by 20 after 2:16 had gone by and another DeAngelis 3 pointer gave Plattsburgh its largest lead of the game at 60-38 with 14:33 to play. Oswego managed to cut the deficit several times to 12 points and then with just under 5 minutes to go got it back to single digits on a pair of layups by Liam Sanborn, that sandwiched a pair of free throws by the Lakers Ian Schupp. That made it 77-68 but it was their last hurrah as Eli Bryant hit a jumper, then stole the ball and scored on a drive to the hoop. Josh Ivey scored for Oswego, but Mack had another dunk on a feed from Patron and then Patron scored after Oswego missed and the lead was back to 15 at 85-70. With two minutes left it was time to light the cigar.
Jon Patron led all scorers and rebounders once again with a double-double of 27 points and 12 rebounds. He added 3 assists and a steal and shot 12x19 from the field. He had a double-double last night against Cortland in that Plattsburgh win and I think he's in prime position to win a 2nd SUNYAC Player of the Week award unless there are some pretty big games coming in tonight's contests by guys that had pretty good games last night. Plus Patron's efforts came against two of the top contenders for playoff spots including an unbeaten in the conference (at the time) Cortland. And yes I'm shamelessly plugging my guy because I can (and because he scored 40 fantasy points tonight for me in my D3hoops fantasy league.)
Eli Bryant continues to play outstanding ball as he comes off the bench and delivers key baskets time after time. Last night he nails the winning basket against Cortland and tonight has a pair of 3 pointers that turned a 23-19 lead into a 29-19 point lead and the Lakers never recovered from that. A big turning point in the game in my opinion. Eli ended up with 18 points, 3 assists and 4 steals as he continues to come off the bench and average 19 points per game He was 7x11 tonight from the field and 2x4 from deep.
Eric Mack continues to thrill the Cardinal fans with his amazing ability to defy gravity. He is only 6'3" and is the 2nd leading shot blocker in the YAC. He scored 14 points in today's game going 6x8 from the field and 4 of those field goals were picture perfect dunks.
Chris Middleton and Nick DeAngelis both had 9 points. Middleton had 5 rebounds and DeAngelis had 4 assists.
The Cardinals led in almost every category, outshooting the Lakers from the field and from deep. Plattsburgh had 39 rebounds and 10 turnovers to 33 rebounds and 13 TO's for Oswego.
Oswego got 21 points from Liam Sanborn who added 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals He was 8x13 from the field and 2x3 from downtown.
Tyler Pierre had 14 points and a team high 7 rebounds while shooting 7x9 from the field.
Josh Ivey had 8 points and also tied for the team lead with 7 boards. Tom Marshall had 9 points and 3 boards.
Plattsburgh has now won 6 in a row and is 9-4 overall. They are 7-1 in the conference and tied for first place with Cortland but they do hold the tiebreaker over them by virtue of their win in Cortand last night. They are off until next weekend when they will host Geneseo on Friday night at 7:30 PM followed by Brockport on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 PM.
Oswego State drops to 7-8 overall and 4-4 in the YAC. They are back in action on Tuesday Jan 16th when they host New Paltz at 7:30 PM.