CORTLAND, N.Y. – Junior guard Dustin Marshall (Newfield) made all six of his three-point attempts and finished with a game-high 25 points as Cortland defeated Fredonia, 70-60, in the SUNYAC men’s basketball tournament quarterfinals.
The third-seeded Red Dragons (16-10) will face second-seeded Oneonta in the semifinals Friday at 6 p.m. at SUNY Plattsburgh. The host Cardinals will play fourth-seeded Brockport Friday at 8 p.m., with the championship game slated for Saturday at 4 p.m. in Plattsburgh.
Marshall went 6-for-6 from behind the three-point arc and also had three assists and three steals. Freshman Jesse Winter (Rockville Centre/South Side) netted 17 points, including two three-pointers, and sophomore Brian Manning (Elmira/Elmira Southside) scored 10 points and led the team with seven rebounds and four assists.
Fredonia (11-14), the tournament sixth seed, was led by Julius Bryant’s (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) 18 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Amir Billups (Buffalo/Starpoint) scored 12 points off the bench, including three treys, and Kyle Mitchell (Lake Luzerne/Hadley Luzerne) finished with 10 points, five rebounds and three blocks.
Cortland led 19-7 with 6:34 left in the first half, but Fredonia came back and trailed by just two, 21-19, after a Mitchell jumper with 2:27 left. The Blue Devils trailed by four at halftime, 27-23.
The Red Dragons led 40-29 after a Winter three-pointer with 16:20 left, but Fredonia fought back again and got within four at 51-47 on a Bryant jumper with 6:28 remaining. Neither team scored again, however, until Winter’s driving layup with 3:53 left. Bryant’s two foul shots with 3:14 left reduced the margin to six, but Marshall quickly drained a three-pointer 10 seconds later to give Cortland a nine-point edge. Fredonia got no closer than seven points after that.
Marshall and Winter each made 5-of-6 free throws and Cortland was 17-of-21 (81 percent) from the line as a team. Bryant was 8-of-9 from the foul line for Fredonia, which finished 14-of-16 (88 percent) from the stripe. Cortland shot 43 percent from the floor, including 53 percent (9-of-17) from three-point range, while Fredonia made 39 percent of its shots, 33 percent (6-of-18) from behind the arc.
Box Score/Play-by-Play