The SUNY Oneonta men's basketball team came away with a hard-fought 87-83 win at home against Brockport today.  The contest was physical and went down to the wire before the Red Dragons secured the victory to push its record to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the SUNYAC.  The loss for the Golden Eagles dropped them to an identical 4-2 record overall and 1-1 mark in conference play.
 
The final 4:30 of the game took nearly 45 minutes to complete with both teams making runs at each other.  In the end, it was Oneonta's long-range shooting and its bench that proved to be the difference.  The Red Dragons made a season high 11 threes while the reserves scored nearly half of the points (42).  Sophomore Carson Jacobs (Buchanan/Hendrick Hudson) led Oneonta's bench with a career high 15 points.  Freshman Andres Rivera (Bronx/Walton) and sophomore Harrison Deegan (Putnam Valley/Putnam Valley) both contributed eight points off the bench.
 
Back-to-back layups by Deegan put Oneonta ahead for the first time in the game at 13-12.  After a free throw by Michael O'Hara tied the score, Jacobs gave the Red Dragons the lead for good.  Oneonta held the lead for the remaining 31:18 of the game.
 
Oneonta led by as many as nine points late in the first half when sophomore Kevin Mackin (Nanuet/Nanuet) buried a three-pointer.  The Golden Eagles rallied with a 10-4 burst to cut its deficit to 41-38 going into halftime.  Senior Hamed Shamseldin scored 12 of his game high 28 points to pace Brockport.
 
Oneonta came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders scoring 11 unanswered to open up a 14 points advantage.  The Golden Eagles countered with a 9-1 run to get themselves back into the contest with 13 minutes still to go.
 
Back-to-back threes by Mackin gave Oneonta a 74-65 lead with 2:50 left on the clock.  Mackin led the Red Dragons today with 17 points including 12 via the long ball.
 
Brockport battled back and got as close as two points with three seconds to go when Shamseldin made a three.  Senior Dwayne Freeman (Schenectady/Notre-Dame Bishop Gibbons) iced the game with a pair of free throws to bring the final to 87-83.  Freeman finished the game with 13 points all coming in the second half.  Freeman converted 8-of-10 from the charity stripe.
 
The Red Dragons will travel to defending SUNYAC champion Oswego on Tuesday night beginning at 7:30pm.  The two last met in the championship game of the SUNYAC Tournament.