POTSDAM, N.Y. – Isaiah Brown scored 35 points and pulled down 12 rebounds as SUNYAC co-leader Potsdam defeated visiting Cortland, 83-73, in men's basketball action.
The Bears improved to 13-3 overall and 8-1 in the SUNYAC with the win. Cortland dropped to 10-6 overall and 4-5 in the conference.
Ryan Schmadel (Oriskany) led Cortland with 20 points. He made 6-of-11 3-pointers and 7-of-12 shots overall.
Austin Grunder (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson) pitched in with 17 points, six rebounds and a career-high tying four assists,
Eric Edwards (Binghamton) scored 13 points and added a career-high three assists, and
Brendan Fitzpatrick (Plainview/Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK) closed the game with 12 points and team highs of eight rebounds and six assists.
Riley McEvoy (Homer) matched his career high with five rebounds.
Brown was 10-of-20 from the floor, including 5-of-7 from the arc, and hit 10 of his 12 free throws for the Bears. He also contributed four steals and three assists. Jayquan Thomas scored 17 points and handed out three assists, Tyrese Baptiste had 13 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks, and Aaron Armstrong totaled eight points and eight rebounds.
Cortland used a 13-0 run that featured two Schmadel 3-pointers and five points from Edwards to take a 28-21 lead with 6:46 left in the first half. Potsdam responded with an 18-3 streak to go up 39-31, and Cortland closed to 39-33 at halftime on a Grunder bucket just before the buzzer.
The Red Dragons were within two points at 41-39 after Grunder's 3-point play with 17:41 remaining. Potsdam, however, pushed its lead to 11 at 52-41 on an Armstrong layup with 14:05 left and led by as many as 16 points at 63-47 with 10:04 remaining.
Cortland made one final push and reduced its deficit to eight at 67-59 on a Schmadel trey with 5:48 remaining and again at 69-61 on Grunder's layup at the 4:48 mark. Potsdam, however, used a Brown 3-pointer with 3:57 on the clock to go up by 11 and led by nine or more after that.
Cortland shot 40 percent from 3-point territory (12-of-30) but only 39 percent overall from the floor. Potsdam shot 44 percent from the field as a whole, but just 25 percent (6-of-24) from long distance. The Bears went 17-for-21 from the foul line compared to just 5-of-13 shooting for Cortland.
Cortland will play at Fredonia Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. at Buffalo State. (Note: the men's games next weekend will be prior to the women's games due to a schedule change by Fredonia due to an event they are hosting.)
