Senior Conor Boyer (East Rochester, NY/East Rochester) knocked down his first career three-pointer to force overtime, and the Keuka College men's basketball team dominated the extra session to knock off host SUNY Cobleskill, 82-69 Saturday afternoon inside the Iorio Gymnasium in Cobleskill, NY.
Sophomore Adam Starks (Wellsville, NY/Andover) scored four of his 10 points in overtime as the Storm (2-5, 2-0 North Eastern Athletic Conference) outscored the Fighting Tigers 16-3 in overtime to win their second straight.
Senior Teddy Tuggles (Rochester, NY/Gates Chili) scored a season-high 23 points with 5 assists and 4 rebounds while sophomore Trevor Healey (Wethersfield, CT/Wethersfield) added 14 points and five rebounds as Keuka outrebounded Cobleskill 45-36.
"Honestly, when I shot it I was thinking I should have given the ball to teddy, but I put it up and it went in and it feels great to get this win," Boyer said. "It's a huge win for us, now we're 2-0 in the conference and we beat two pretty good teams. I feel our captains, myself, Teddy and Tyler Hixson did a real good job of keeping everybody calm, even when it was loud and wild in the gym."
Tuggles scored 21 of his points in the second half and overtime while Boyer finished with eight points and eight rebounds. Sophomore Jared Wagner (Pittsford, NY/McQuaid) added 12 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals for the Green and Gold.
Wagner and Tuggles led an aggressive 2-3 zone defense that limited Cobleskill to 0-for-8 shooting in overtime, and just 20 percent (5-for-25) on '3s'.
The Storm surged out to a 30-19 lead after Wagner converted a three-point play with 4:46 remaining in the first.
But Cobleskill (2-8, 0-1 NEAC) ended the half on a 17-2 run, leading 36-32 at intermission. After the deficit grew to 38-32, Healey took over, making three straight jumpers along with a big block to tie the score at 38 with 15:41 remaining.
Neither team led by more than four points the rest of regulation. A pair of free throws from Tuggles put Keuka ahead 61-59 with 2:52 remaining before Cobleskill used a 7-2 run to take a 66-63 lead on Mike Marcelin's jumper with 20 seconds remaining.
Cobleskill missed a pair of free throws, and Boyer snared the rebound. After a timeout, Boyer found himself with the ball, and after his first two passing options were denied, Boyer hoisted up a '3' that forced overtime.
Tuggles made a '3', freshman Casey Williams (Syracuse, NY/Jamesville-DeWitt) added a jumper and Wagner buried a '3' as the Storm started OT on an 8-2 run. Starks made all four free throws while Wagner went 2-for-2 as the Green and Gold made their last six free throws to seal the win.
"Anytime you can win a conference road game is a good thing," said Thad Phillips, Keuka's third-year head coach.
"We executed our game plan over the game's first 15 minutes to a tee, shooting 56 percent in the first half. We got shots we wanted and we weren't turning the ball over. Then they were forcing the pace and we played into that and started turning the ball over and let them back into it. But to see those guys bounce back is great. We handled the bad things, gave up a double-digit lead and still closed out OT on a 16-3 run. We get better every time we step onto the court to play."
Marcelin finished with 20 points, Dane Brown added 18 and Alexis Nunez had 12 points and nine assists for Cobleskill.
The Storm travels to Rochester for the Rochester Institute of Technology Harold J. Brodie Tournament, Dec. 14-15. Keuka plays Manhattanville College at 6 p.m. on Friday.
"We're playing really good ball, these conference games are the most important games for us," Boyer said. "Our goal is to get to the conference tournament and I feel we can beat anyone in the conference the way we're playing."