Cortland Men Fall to Visiting Potsdam, 78-69

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CORTLAND, N.Y. – Dante Langley led four Potsdam double-figure scorers with 21 points as the Bears defeated host Cortland, 78-69, in a SUNYAC men's basketball contest.

 
Langley made three 3-pointers and 8-of-9 free throws and also grabbed five rebounds for Potsdam (9-6, 5-3 SUNYAC). Nosa Onabor hit 4-of-6 long-distance shots and finished with 17 points and six rebounds. Jayquan Thomas added 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting and Serigne Kane also made 5-of-7 shots in a 10-point effort.
 
Justin Cooper (Pine Plains/Stissing Mountain) paced Cortland (11-4, 5-3 SUNYAC) with 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor and 6-of-7 connections on the foul line. He also added three assists and four rebounds. Ryan Schmadel (Oriskany) ended 4-of-8 from 3-point land and tied his season high with 19 points. Nicky Bonura (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) led the Red Dragons with eight rebounds and five assists and Kenny Charles (Huntington) registered seven points, six boards and three blocks.
 
Potsdam led for the game's final 28-plus minutes. The Bears went up 16-15 on an Onabor 3-pointer with 8:33 left in the first half and he hit another trey a minute later. Thomas added a layup with 6:59 left and Kane made a layup just over a minute later and Potsdam led 23-15.
 
The lead for Potsdam fluctuated between three and eight points the rest of the half and settled at seven at 33-26 at the break. The margin grew to 10 at 44-34 on a Thomas layup with 14:56 remaining, but Cortland got back to within four on a Schmadel 3-pointer two minutes later.
 
Cortland trailed by four on two other occasions in the second half, the last at 62-58 on two Cooper free throws with 5:40 left. Potsdam, however, answered with 3-pointers from Danny Delsol-Lowry and Langley to take a 10-point lead in a span of less than a minute, and the Bears' lead was at least five the remainder of the contest.
 
Potsdam shot 50 percent from the floor overall and 38 percent (8-for-21) from the arc. Cortland ended at 40 percent overall but struggled with its 3-point touch at just 8-of-39 (21 percent) accuracy. Cortland was also atypically off at the foul line at just 11-for-18 (61 percent) compared to 20-for-28 (71 percent) for the guests. Cortland entered the game as the Division III national leader in free throw percentage (84.3 percent).
 
Cortland will host Plattsburgh Saturday at 3 p.m. in a game that has been moved up one hour due to an anticipated snowstorm Saturday afternoon.