It was a tale of two styles in the Round of 64 as the Lakers took on the Salem State Vikings of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) and won 72-59.

Oswego State is an elite defensive team as it sports the 11th-best scoring defense in the nation. On the other hand, Salem State has an electric offense led by two major scorers, Sean Bryan and Hakeem Animashaun.

Coming into the game, the Vikings scored just over 87 points per game which is good for 25th in the nation. Despite their regular season success, the old adage ‘defense wins championships’ held true tonight as the Lakers defense held the Vikings to just 59 points, their lowest point total since Dec. 6.

Oswego State’s head coach, Jason Leone, agrees with the mantra, a big reason why the Lakers play such a defensive style.

“I have always thought that at the end of the year, if you watch any basketball at any level, the game does slow down,” Leone said. “By the end of the year, everyone is playing six or seven guys and you have to be able to execute in the half court on offense and defense. So I believe philosophically that our way of playing is built for this time of year.”

Despite the defensive effort, the Lakers offense was on full display. The team scored 72 points, which was within two points of their season average of 73.9. The scoring primarily came in the second half as the Lakers scored just 28 points in the first 20 minutes of play.

Quinn Carey, the senior guard, kept the Lakers in the game early on as they struggled to generate offense. Carey had Oswego State’s only points through the first seven minutes of play as the Lakers trailed early by a score of 13-5.

Early on, the Lakers were outmuscled in the paint, particularly by Animashaun and Bryan, who recorded six and 10 rebounds, respectively.

At 11:32 in the first half, Carey hit his second of four threes on the night. The triple put the Lakers within three as the score was 15-12. That was one of several turning points in the contest as the Lakers would go on a 8-2 run to take the lead. Carey ended the night with 17 points and shot four of nine from beyond the three-point line.

To the surprise of nobody, Carey had an excellent night.

“I felt good,” Carey said. “As I’ve [said] before, shooters shoot. Coach did a good job designing plays for us [and] guys got me some open looks.”

While Carey was able to hit his shots, his Vikings’ counterpart could not do so. Coming into the game, Bryan averaged 25.3 points per game. While Bryan scored 21, the problem was his abysmal field goal percentage of 27 percent in comparison to his season average of 41.5 percent.

The Lakers were also able to limit Animashaun to just 14 points. The six-foot-seven forward is used to scoring 21 per game. An integral reason to liming big man was Oswego State’s pair of big men in Tyler Pierre and Joe Sullivan. The Lakers outscored Salem State 34-32 inside the paint.

Pierre’s defensive abilities were put to the test often as he and Animashaun battled. Pierre embraced the battle as he is not used to facing big men who play with their backs to the basket.

“Coming into the matchup it was fun,” Pierre said. “I knew he was going to be a good player and he didn’t surprise me at all.”

With 3:31 gone in the second half, the Vikings went on their second big run of the game as they scored eight straight points to reclaim a five point lead. Oswego State was searching for answers when Leone called a timeout 6:24 into the second half. After that, it was the Pierre show. Pierre would score nine consecutive Oswego State points and 15 points in the second half. This was the second time in as many weekends in which he would dominate when it mattered most.

In the SUNYAC semifinals, he scored 11 points in the overtime period, almost outscoring SUNY Oneonta all by himself.  

At 14:43 in the second half, Pierre fouled out of the game. He ended the night with 19 points and 11 rebounds, another double-double. Oswego State responded well to his departure as it was still able to contain the Vikings in the paint. At this point in the game, the Lakers’ lead was just four and a Salem State run seemed eminent.

However, the Lakers would out-rebound the Vikings 8-5 for the rest of the game. Limiting Salem State’s second chance points was huge down the stretch.

With Pierre already out, and Liam Sanborn playing with four fouls for a majority of the game, the Lakers had to be careful. Oswego State only played six guys for the entire game with Sanborn, Carey and Brandon Gartland playing the full 40 minutes.

While the score was close for a majority of the game, Leone was not thrilled with the mistakes his team made.

“I said to [my guys] in the huddle, as crazy as they were driving me with the turnovers, there was finally a timeout with under 12, where I looked in their eyes and just felt it was time they were going to reach back for something,” Leone said. “It took us a while to get there but they did and we played a really good stretch. It was maddening going through it because we were up by two, three, four, missing open shots, free throws, turning the ball over and finally we cracked it open.”

Despite the mistakes, the Lakers took over with about eight minutes left in the game. At 13:32 in the second Carey hit a wide-open three, and the floodgates opened. At that point the Lakers went up by a score of 52-45 and never looked back. Oswego State held a multi-possession lead for the rest of the night with the smallest lead at four points. The Lakers ended the game with the largest lead of the night as they won by 13.

With the Lakers’ victory, the team will move on to face Baldwin Wallace tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. Due to the game tonight, it will be a long night for Leone.

“I will be late,” Leone said. “I haven’t watched anything other than part of their game today and really, it’s hard for me to pay attention when I was getting ready for this game.”

In the end, neither team will be at a film disadvantage, Leone said, because tomorrow is all about the players.

“The second day of a back to back is more about the players anyway,” Leone said. “Regardless of what we ask them to do tomorrow, the players have got to go play. They won’t have a long time to prepare for us either, so this will be more of a players game tomorrow.”

Photo: Nicole Hube | The Oswegonian