Feb 19, 2011
CORTLAND, N.Y. – Jon Ivy (Rochester/East) scored a game-high 22 points, including a tiebreaking layup with 4:31 left that gave his team the lead for good, as Brockport defeated Cortland, 66-60, in the regular-season finale for both squads.
Cortland (10-15, 7-11 SUNYAC) finishes in a three-way tie for sixth place in the SUNYAC standings. By virtue of the league tiebreaker system, the Red Dragons will be the seventh seed for next week's SUNYAC tournament and will play at second-seeded Buffalo State in the quarterfinals Tuesday at 7 p.m. Brockport (13-12, 11-7 SUNYAC) will be the fourth seed and will host fifth-seeded Oneonta on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Derek Klein (Valley Stream/Long Island Lutheran) and Kyheem Green (Huntington Station/Walt Whitman) scored 13 points apiece for the Golden Eagles. Green led the team with nine rebounds, four blocks and three steals.
Sophomore Jeremy Smith (Bronx/Riverdale Kingsbridge) led Cortland with 17 points. He made five three-pointers, and also finished with six rebounds and three steals. Sophomore Jesse Winter (Rockville Centre/South Side) scored 14 points, including four treys, and matched his career high with nine assists.
Sophomore Harrison Hefele (Greenlawn/Friends Academy) also made four three-pointers and finished with 12 points and two blocks. Freshman Kevin McMahon (Hoosick Falls) led the Red Dragons with nine rebounds.
Cortland made 14-of-39 three-point attempts in the contest (35.9 percent), but hit only 7-of-24 (29.2 percent) from inside the arc. In the second half, eight of Cortland's nine made baskets were from three-point range. Brockport finished 24-of-35 from the foul line to just 4-of-4 for Cortland.
Cortland raced out to a 21-9 lead 11 minutes into the game, but Brockport scored 11 straight to cut its deficit to one with 4:32 left. Cortland took a 34-26 on a Smith three-pointer with 44 seconds left, but Brockport's Stephen Sisson (Ballston Spa/Saratoga Springs) hit a three-pointer from the right corner at the buzzer for his only three points of the game to cut Cortland's lead to five at the break.
The Golden Eagles then opened the second half on an 11-0 run and led 40-34 with 15:18 left. From that point, neither team led by more than six points the rest of the game. Cortland grabbed its final lead at 51-49 on a Hefele three-pointer with 9:51 left. Smith forced the game's final tie at 54-54 on a trey with 6:26 remaining before baskets by Ivy and Zack McTigue (East Aurora) put Brockport up four.
Hefele hit a three-pointer with 3:06 left to bring Cortland within 58-57. Brockport responded with a Gerald Williams (Rochester/Charlotte) free throw with 2:38 left, two Ivy foul shots with 1:46 remaining and a Klein free throw with 1:15 left to take a five-point lead. Smith's three-pointer with one minute left kept Cortland within two points, but Klein made four free throws in the final 41 seconds to complete the scoring.