Championship feeling

Oswego State Lakers lost last year’s SUNYAC championship game as the No. 4 seed up in Plattsburgh to SUNY Cortland on a last second shot. This year they have their home-court court behind them as the No. 1 seed, and are coming off one of the most exciting victories all season at Max Ziel Gymnasium last night.

The Lakers are looking to take back the SUNYAC crown they held in 2015, which would be their third under head coach Jason Leone, and seventh in program history.

The Lakers finished the regular season 2-2 with four straight road games, but proved last night defeating a tough hot-handed Buffalo State team that they earned their right to host and play in the conference championship game.

Staying hot

Brian Sortino is coming off the game of his life last night with a 48-point outing that was just one-point shy of the program record set in 1958. Playing a championship game less than 18 hours later could be demanding on Sortino and others, but this is nothing new to the Lakers senior.

Sortino throughout his career has dominated on big weekends like this, he averaged 26 points a game in last year’s SUNYAC playoffs, and has preached these last few weeks the importance of winning a SUNYAC championship in front of that Laker crowd.

Best two-of-three

No. 1 Oswego State and No. 3 Oneonta split their two regular season meetings this season with victories on their home-court.

It was the first SUNYAC loss for the Lakers this season that Oneonta handed them way back on Dec. 6^th. The Red Dragons won 73-67 with 52 points combined from their big three of Mikey Mcelroy, Lawrence Coleman, and Dwayne Freeman.

Sortino scored 18 points in that match-up, but struggled from the field with 6 of 18 shooting.

The Lakers indeed defended that loss with an 87-78 victory over Oneonta on Jan. 6^th at Max Ziel Gymnasium. Four Laker players scored in double figures that game, with 20 points each from Sortino and Keith Tyson.

Coleman and Mcelroy combined to score 42 points that game, but didn’t get much help from others on both ends of the floor.

Stopping the Red Dragons

No. 3 Oneonta stunned the No. 2 Brockport Golden Eagles in dominating fashion yesterday with an 85-72 victory. They held all Brockport’s lethal scorers in check, and even survived without much of a showing from Mikey Mcelroy, who is second in SUNYAC this season in scoring with 21.4 points per game.

Coleman and Frankie Kelly scored over 20 points each by combining for 45 points in yesterday’s first semifinal game. The Red Dragons pushed the floor in each offensive possession, leaving the Brockport defense with no answers in the second half.

Defense

Oswego State had the second best defense in conference this season in points allowed with 71.8 a game in comparison to Oneonta’s 80.3 points per game.

Defense wins championships, but Oswego has been known to be unpredictable this season in regards of how the game ends up and how much they control the pace.

Players to look for

Everyone will expect Sortino to have another solid game today, but the supporting cast of Jamir Ferebee and Ian Schupp have showed all season they can carry the scoring load.

Senior Keith Tyson usually takes care of the dirty work rebounding and defending, but has put together 20-point performances himself this season in some of their big victories.

For Oneonta, it’ll be interesting to see how Mikey Mcelory will respond after his performance yesterday, he did excel at getting to the free-throw line in the second half, but still shot 2-12 from the field in the game.

Coleman, Freeman, and Frankie will keep the Lakers defense in check, who will likely being making adjustments after letting Buffalo State shoot over 50 percent from the field last night.

Game Prediction

This is what the Oswego State Lakers strived for all season led by seniors Sortino, Tyson, Mykelle Krecko and head coach Jason Leone.

Their 15-3 record speaks for itself, but they still have an underdog mentality to block out all of the pressure of having the No. 1 target pinned to their back all season.

The Lakers like to win, but they certainly haven’t made it look easy with 9 victories this season decided by 4 points of fewer.

Oneonta looks like they played their best basketball game all-season yesterday, but did not have to face the intense home-crowd the Lakers endured last night.

This game will likely come down to the last minute, similar to the way the Lakers have orchestrated their wins all season. It all depends on which Lakers defense shows up tonight, and if the offense will shoot well than their 36 percent from the field yesterday.

Lakers will find their ways to make plays in their deep lineup and outlast the No. 3 Oneonta Red Dragons for the 2017 SUNYAC Championship.

Catch today’s title game at 4:00 p.m. at the Max Ziel Gymnasium in Oswego, New York.