BEVERLY, MASS. - The Cortland men's basketball team's season came to a close with a heart-wrenching 58-57 loss to host Endicott College in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.
 
Cortland, ranked 23rd nationally by D3hoops.com, finishes with a 24-5 record, matching the best record in school history. Three previous Cortland teams also finished with 24-5 records - 1999-2000, 2005-06 and 2012-13. Endicott (28-1), ranked 11th nationally advances to play Illinois Wesleyan next weekend in the round of 16.
 
The game featured eight ties and 10 lead changes. Cortland trailed 13-5 to start but came back and took the lead before going into the locker room at halftime down by one, 31-30. Cortland's largest lead in the second half was 38-34 on an Aaron Coston (Kerhonkson/Rondout Valley) layup with 14:43 left. Endicott took the lead at 42-40 on a Marcus Montagnino jumper with 11:36 left and never trailed again, but the Gulls' lead never reached more than four points the rest of the game.
 
Down 54-50 with 3:30 left, Cortland came back and tied it at 54-54 on a Gaige Armbrewster (Oakfield/Oakfield-Alabama) layup with 3:17 left and two Armbrewster free throws with 2:09 remaining. Montagnino answered with a layup at the 1:59 mark, and his two free throws with 1:09 remaining made it a four-point game.
 
Coston nailed a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left to cut the hosts' lead to 58-57. The Red Dragons' defense got a stop on the next Endicott possession and called timeout in the frontcourt with eight seconds left. On the ensuing possession, Endicott's Matt Boen blocked a Coston layup attempt and the ball went out of bounds with four tenths of a second remaining. After an Endicott timeout, Cortland struggled to find an open player on the inbounds pass but eventually got the ball to Nolan Raymond (Queens Village/Vermont Academy) on the left wing. Raymond was forced to attempt a quick off-balanced push shot that came up short as time expired.
 
Coston led Cortland with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting and added five rebounds and four assists. Raymond scored 10 points, Armbrewster tallied eight points on 3-of-4 shooting and grabbed six rebounds, and Joel Davis (Watertown) scored eight points in addition to recording five rebounds and four assists. Kendall Arcuri (Staten Island/St. Joseph by-the-Sea) and Gavyn Pacheco (Hopewell Junction/John Jay-East Fishkill) each scored seven points, with Arcuri leading the team with eight rebounds.
 
Montagnino paced Endicott with 26 points and was second on the team with nine rebounds. He hit 9-of-16 shots from the floor. Boen had 13 points and Elijah Kinney scored 10 points and led the team with 10 rebounds and three assists.
 
Cortland was held to 37 percent shooting from the field, including 21 percent (6-of-28) from 3-point range. Endicott shot 44 percent overall but just 29 percent (4-of-14) from the arc. The Red Dragons stayed closed despite the shooting discrepancy by holding a 9-4 advantage on second-chance points.