Oswego State’s men’s basketball team has matched school history with victories in the first two rounds of the NCAA Div. III Championships and a berth into the Sweet 16.

Following wins in the rounds of 64 and 32 over Hood College and Keene State respectively, the Lakers are poised to write their names in the history books if they take down Marietta College in the next round.

A four and a half hour drive from their home soil, the Lakers headed into unfamiliar territory with Hood College in their sights as their first matchup of the weekend. This was only the second time in school history that the Blazers made the NCAA tournament following their first ever conference tournament win. Meanwhile for Oswego State, this is their seventh trip to the NCAA tournament in the last 11 years.

However, head coach of the Lakers, Jason Leone, did not see this disparity in tournament appearances as any sort of reason that his team should win. Instead, he made note that despite the team’s recent presence in the tournament, this is a whole new team.

“A lot of the guys that play for us either weren’t in our rotation the last time we played, or they’re new, so I don’t think it’ll have too much of a bearing on the game,” Leone said.

Another note of interest heading into the game is that Hood College played a completely different style of basketball than the Lakers are used to. Their lights out offense is spurred on by twin brothers Mason and Evan Wang. Leone understood that his team was going to need to be resilient and tough on defense if they were to secure the win.

“For a team that on average attempts 35 threes a game, you’re not going to stop them from shooting threes,” Leone said. “What we have emphasized with our players is we’ve got to try and contest as many of them as possible [and] use our length. What you don’t want to do is chase them around so much that your defense is spread out and then they can drive to the basket.”

Size was an obvious discrepancy in favor of Oswego State in this matchup, one in which the Lakers were keen to extort. Senior forward Brendan Mulson laid out the plan which was to secure at least 15 offensive rebounds in the contest. Teammate Christian Simmons echoed what he believed will win them the game.

“Being that we have a little bit of an advantage with our size over these guys, definitely rebounding and getting extra opportunities for the team,” Simmons said.

The Lakers started the game off slow, falling behind by nine points at one point in the first half. However, as they found their groove, the team bounced back and put together a dominant display to close out the first half that ended on a 13-0 run for Oswego State.

As the rest of the game developed, the Lakers surpassed the 15 offensive rebound mark that Mulson targeted before pulling out a hard fought 82-73 win over the Blazers in the first round. Hood College fought tooth and nail to keep the game close, fouling for free throws deep into the second half. The Wang twins were effective out of the gate, but as the contest developed their presence and impact faded. 

Hood College’s speed and style was difficult for the Lakers to adapt to out of the gates which played into the team’s slow start. Afterwards, Leone explained why Hood College was difficult to prepare for in the build up to the game.

“We couldn’t replicate what they were doing in our practices so it was certainly a feeling out process,” Leone said. “When we started out, the beginning of the game it obviously didn’t go too well, but I was proud of our guys, we buckled down and made proper adjustments and I think our depth helped us in this game.”

Oswego State’s bench players, led by Julien Crittendon, provided more than double the amount of their counterparts on the bench. Despite the win, the Lakers knew there was much more to work in order to be prepared for the next day’s game against Keene State who upset the No. 20 ranked hosts Swarthmore College in a close affair. Jamal Achille, who recorded a double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds, emphasized the importance of embracing their identity as a defensive team as they go into the next game.

“I think just being able to buckle down on defense,” Achille said. “We’ve been a great defensive team all year so that’s really what it comes down to at the end of the day.”

The following day proved a new challenge, a new opponent and more expectations. With one more win the Lakers would tie school history and look to be the first ever Oswego State men’s basketball team to reach the Elite 8.

As he and his team prepared for their round of 32 matchup, Leone credited the previous day’s opponents. He also praised his team’s resilience in the game after fighting back to secure the win.

“Credit them [Hood College] too, they’re really hard to guard … they have a good coach and a great way of playing, very competitive as all these teams are,” Leone said. “I was pleased with the way we settled in and we really did the things, as the game went along, that we talked about doing. We stopped their second shots, started switching a little bit better and obviously hurt them on the offensive glass.”

Keene State who were without their star player, James Anozie in their win against Swarthmore, had eaten breakfast in the same hotel as the Lakers shortly before filing out of the lobby to be replaced by their counterparts. The Owls had beaten two teams ranked in the top 25 in the nation leading up to their battle with the Lakers, something that Leone paid much attention to as he credited them and their organization.

“Well it seems like they almost play better when they’re in some sort of a hostile underdog role,” Leone said. “Our guys need to know the physicality in which they play. They are used to being in this tournament and not only being in the tournament, they’re playing well, they have some pretty deep runs so it’ll be a part of the game.”

Leone’s men understood their assignment of physicality and efficient offense as they brought the game straight to the Owls without giving them a second to breathe. Jumping out to a 20 point lead going into halftime courtesy of 13 points by both Achille and Simmons. The latter shot nearly perfect from behind the arc in the affair hitting several clutch long-range baskets to drive the Laker momentum.

Jeremiah Sparks was unusually quiet in the matchup against the Owls scoring only eight points in the entire game. However, it speaks to the depth of the roster that the Lakers still pulled out a massive 84-63 win to move them onto the Sweet 16. Achille capped off an incredible weekend with another nine points in the second half which brought his total for the first two rounds to 39 points. Freshman guard Ahkee Anderson added 17 points of his own as he was consistent throughout the game as well.

Celebrations erupted through the Tarble Pavilion as the final buzzer sounded, symbolizing a punched ticket for Oswego State into the Sweet 16 for only the third time in history. The duality of the team’s mentality was on full display as they embraced one another and took celebratory photos in front of the NCAA banner. However, these cheers were short lived as many of the players, once pictures were taken, rushed back to the locker room, showing that tying school history is not what this team has in sight for the end of their season.

Leone showed up to the post-game press conference drenched, presumably from his players dumping drinks on him in celebration. However, despite the joyous moment Leone was quick to acknowledge the strength and capability of his opponents.

“The run they’ve gone on here the last couple weeks … they went to UMass-Dartmouth, who they hadn’t beaten either time during the year, in front of 3,200 people [and] go and win in overtime at their place,” Leone said. “Obviously Swarthmore is an incredible program and has a great team this year. The resiliency they showed yesterday was both incredible and scary for us.”

Leone then moved on to speak about how happy he was for his squad. There was clear lightheartedness in his voice as he spoke of the nature of his team and the confidence he has in them.

“With our guys, this has been thematic all year of our team,” Leone said. “Grit, the preparedness, the enthusiasm that we played with today was, to me, just impressive … the higher the stakes the better we’ve played and today was no different.”

Achille reflected happily on his performance over the previous days. The junior forward who led the way for the Lakers said that he feels good about himself and where his game is coming from, especially after the team’s shaky start in their game against Hood College the previous day.

“I feel great,” Achille said. “I try to let the game come to me really and play within the team, see what the defense is giving me, play smart, play relaxed. I think we really settled in after yesterday, getting our nerves out and today we just played the same basketball we played all year.”

Leone made some final remarks before the press conference concluded. First, he made note that while this is important for himself and the team, he is even more filled with joy that there is more people inside and out of the program who get to enjoy this moment with them.

“The fact that we’ve gotten here for the third time in school history makes me really happy,” Leone said. “There’s a lot of people who put a lot of hard work in. The players, my assistant coaches, our administrators and Div. III the way the model is, it’s truly a team effort so there’s a lot of people who get to enjoy this which makes me really happy for this school and our department.”

Finally, he wanted it to be known that this is not where he or his team intend on the road to end. There is more business to be taken care of in the form of writing their name in the history books with one more win.

“The first time we were getting into the tournament we were really happy to be there,” Leone said. “Then we started to build our program so that we were winning games and now I really enjoy those expectations that people see our name on the bracket, advancing and now the next step for us is to get a win on the second weekend so all of our energy and all of our preparation will go into that.”

In order to secure a win in the next round, the Lakers must take the long trek to southeastern Ohio to play Marietta College on their home court on March 11. The team will need to build on their resilient and hot start to the tournament in order to take down the No. 2 ranked team in the nation who are coming off an 88-83 overtime win against the University of Rochester. The Lakers set off on Wednesday on their road to write their names forever in Oswego State history.

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Photo by Melinda Brancato | WTOP 10