By Spencer Bates

The Oswego State men’s basketball team responded with two wins over the span of Feb. 18- 19 after suffering their first SUNYAC loss the previous weekend.

Despite pulling off a narrow win following the loss to SUNY New Paltz, the Lakers looked to make a powerful statement with their last two games of the regular season against SUNY Brockport and SUNY Fredonia. Already locked in as the number one seed in the SUNYAC playoffs, the team wanted to truly impose themselves as the best team in the league.

For the first game of the weekend, SUNY Brockport entered the Max Ziel Gymnasium on Feb. 18 following a 98-62 win against the Blue Devils of SUNY Fredonia. Four Brockport players recorded double digit points in the outing, with scoring for the Golden Eagles being led by David Grady who had 18.

However, in this matchup, Grady was kept quiet, only allowing him to reach eight points in the contest. Meanwhile, the Oswego State offense was efficient with Jamal Achille and Ahkee Anderson both scoring 16 points and leading the team in scoring. Three other players, Devin Green, Julien Crittendon and Christian Simmons all reached the double digit mark for the Lakers.

Anderson’s 16 points came completely in the second half of the game, at one point going on a seven point solo scoring run for the Lakers. His impact on the game was obvious and head coach Jason Leone had nothing but positive remarks for his young star.

“He was great … [but] he didn’t have his best game last Saturday … [it] just wasn’t his night and it’s the way, as a coach, you want to see a guy respond, especially a freshman,” Leone said. “So he was really locked in today and that’s the way we know he can play and he was a big key in the victory.”

Two of the biggest storylines of the game were depth and points off turnovers. Crittendon and Simmons were clinical for the Lakers as they combined for 23 of the total 31 points scored by bench players. Leone touted his team’s depth as something that sets them apart from others.

“That’s certainly a big identity thing for us … the fact that we can run a lot of guys at people and … it’s something we haven’t necessarily had in the past,” Leone said. “This is a very unique feature of this team and I’m really happy we have the number of good players that we do.”

Another equally as impressive statistic from the game was the 29 points the Lakers scored off of turnovers. Turning defense into offense is nothing new to Leone’s team as he remains firm that their identity is defense first.

“If you look at our state we’re top 10 in the country in a number of defensive categories so … if you look at who we are, it starts with our defense,” Leone said. “We’re not an overly big team but we’re physical and we’re able to have a lot of different guys guard multiple positions which is very helpful on defense. Sometimes [it] hurts us a little on offense, our lack of size, but that’s where the game starts for us.”

However, in the following night’s matchup against SUNY Fredonia there was no such sign of being hurt on offense as the team pulled off a win while recording their second highest point total in a game this season.

In their final regular season game, the Lakers demolished the Blue Devils 104-55 keeping their opponents to just under 30% shooting from the field while recording an incredible 51.3% themselves. The Oswego State dominated in points off turnovers and bench points even more so than they did against the Golden Eagles. Scoring 30 points off turnovers and amassing a monumental 62 points from the bench, the team more than doubled the Blue Devils’ scores in each category.

Simmons, in his first start of the season, shined in the spotlight. The senior forward scored 24 points on 90% shooting while draining all three of his three point attempts. Also recording seven rebounds, Simmons and the rest of the squad finished the season the exact way they would have wanted.

The Lakers’ matchup against SUNY Fredonia was senior night for the team. Graduate student Brendan Mulson and seniors Simmons, Crittendon, Eric Sanfilippo, Jordan Brown, Hunter Cole and Louis Fedullo were celebrated before the game in which all except Mulson started the game. Announcements were made noting all of the achievements of the seniors including Mulson surpassing the 1000 point mark during his career as a Laker.

The college community is being encouraged to come out and support the team through the “Pack the Ziel” movement where the first 500 students with an Oswego State ID to show up will receive a free Oswego Lakers t-shirt. The Lakers will now focus on their upcoming SUNYAC semi-final matchup against SUNY New Paltz at home in the Max Ziel Gymnasium on Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m.

William Rogers | The Oswegonian