CORTLAND, NY - In Tuesday night's first round action, taking place in Cortland and Geneseo, Oswego and Oneonta advanced to the SUNYAC semifinals. The Lakers defeated the Knights 95-84 and Oneonta defeated Cortland 60-57. Oswego will play in Plattsburgh at 7:30 pm and Oneonta will play in Brockport at 5:30 pm on Friday, February 23.
In Geneseo, Oswego powered to a 95-84 victory over the Knights. It was a back and forth game for most of the first half, with Geneseo taking a narrow 37-35 lead into halftime. Two free throws by Ian Schupp quickly erased the deficit to start the second half. The Knights and Lakers battled in the early minutes of the half, but Oswego pulled away around seven minutes in. With the score at 49-47, Oswego's next 12 points all came from beyond the arc as they stretched their lead to 9 points. After that, the Lakers never looked back as they increased their lead to 17 points. In the game, Schupp became the 19th player in program history to reach 1,000 points.
In Cortland, Oneonta prevailed in a tight game, defeating the Red Dragons 60-57. In the first half, Oneonta got off to a quick start against Cortland, but the score remained consistently close throughout the rest of the game. At halftime, Oneonta led Cortland 33-23. In the second half, Cortland began to cut into Oneonta's lead making it only a 4 point deficit with about 8 minutes left to play. Oneonta held on during a late push by Cortland in the end, and secured a hard fought win. In the game, sophomore Harrison Deegan scored 15 points for Oneonta, which was the most among the team. For Cortland, junior Justin Cooper led the team, scoring 16 points.