Oswego State Lakers men’s basketball pulls off another tight SUNYAC victory over the hot handed College of Brockport Golden Eagles 78-75. This marks the Lakers fifth straight win and ninth in SUNYAC’s, improving them to 14-4 overall and a first place 10-1 SUNYAC record.

The Brockport Golden Eagles snap their six-game win streak, dropping them to 15-4 overall and to second place in SUNYAC’s at 10-2.

The three Lakers that have been hot lately continued that today, Brian Sortino led all scorers with 24 points, and drained four three-pointers to go with the total.  Jamir Ferebee scored 18 of his own, along with Ian Schupp who had 17 total and four assists.

“It was a great win, they are as good as a team we played all season,” Coach Leone said. “We had a valiant effort from our team today, we been really banged up and some of our starters were really banged up all week.”

The Lakers were in much control for most of the game, they led by 10 at halftime, and took advantage of some of Brockport’s shooting struggles. After two free throws from Sortino, the Lakers jumped out to a commanding 60-44 lead with 8:07 remaining in the game.

Then the Brockport Golden Eagles finally started to get some shots to knock down and itch their way back.

“They played their best basketball the last eight minutes of the game,” Leone said. “Brockport is a heck of a team.”

The Brockport Golden Eagles defense increased the intensity in the second half going with full court pressure, and double team traps on Brian Sortino, which was effective in slowing down Oswego’s offense, and forcing them to turn the ball over.

“We wanted to try the best we could to spread the court so the players had more operating room,” Leone said. “For the most part to get through that game and turn the ball over 14 times is a win for us.”

Hamed Shamseldin fueled Brockport’s second half comeback with 14 points in the half after only contributing two in the first half.

With 2:52 remaining in the game, Ferebee knocked down a jumper to give the Lakers 69-61 lead. After trading some free throws, Shamseldin drained a three to cut the Laker lead to 70-66 with 1:58 remaining.

Schupp put the Lakers back up to six with a mid-range jumper with 1:27 left, but was quickly answered by Matthew Smith’s three-point bucket to make it a 72-69 lead.

Shamseldin’s free throw with 18 seconds left made it a 72-70 deficit, Schupp’s two free throws would then be answered again by Brockport with a three-pointer from Shamseldin, making it 74-73 Laker lead with 11 seconds left.

Sortino was quickly fouled off the inbound, and drained his two attempts to push it up to a 76-73 lead. With nine seconds left Devonn Gavin drove up and was fouled at mid-court by Schupp, he immediately chucked up a shot-attempt to try to get three free throw attempts and potentially tie the game up.

After the officials talked it over, they determined it as a common foul, putting the Brockport bench in disbelief.

Gavin drained his two free throws to make it a one point game again, but Sortino was clutch as ever by draining his two free throws to answer and make it a 78-75 lead with six seconds left. Gavin once again tried to tie the game up, but his shot at the buzzer back-rimmed to give the Lakers the victory.

“It just shows our toughness, first off we got to protect our home court,” Sortino said. “Brockport is a very good team, it was a battle for first place right there.”

Free throws played a huge factor in the Lakers victory, they made 27-31 free throws, and more importantly they made 7 of 8 of them in the last three minutes.

The Lakers three leading scorers in Sortino, Ferebee, and Schupp combined to make 17 for 17 at the free throw line to go with their 59 combined point total.

Ferebee scored in double figures for the seventh straight game, and his play lately has earned him a starting role for the Lakers.

“I got Brian Sortino and bunch of other talented guards to play with, so it kind of opens up my game,” Ferebee said. “It makes it easier for me to score, and get to the paint, so overall my teammates are helping me.”

Oswego and Brockport separate themselves a little bit in the standings from the rest of the field, very good teams in Cortland, Oneonta, and Geneseo are three and four games back in the loss column.

As exciting as this win can be for a team, Oswego State sets to remain focus as they take on the only other team in SUNYAC to beat Brockport this season in Geneseo tomorrow.

“Well with these guys, thank god they’re the kids they are, we can’t celebrate too much because we got to dial this back up tomorrow,” Leone said. “We got a tough Geneseo team coming in tomorrow.”

The way the standings are at this moment, the second meeting that takes place between Oswego and Brockport on the last game of the regular season could decide this year’s SUNYAC playoffs host. With six games left for Oswego before that match up, there’s still potential for shake-ups in the standings.

The Lakers look to get a good night sleep and stay hot in the SUNYAC’s tomorrow, they host third place SUNY Geneseo at 2pm at Max Ziel Gymnasium here in Oswego, New York.