Freshman Coty Paige (Rochester, NY/Greece Arcadia) scored a career-high 28 points as Keuka College's men's basketball team got back to .500 in conference play with a 71-64 road victory over SUNY Cobleskill Sunday afternoon inside the Iorio Gymnasium in Cobleskill.

Paige, who surpassed 20 points in a game for the fourth time this season, shot 8-for-15 from the field and 11-for-12 at the free throw line and added 5 rebounds and four steals for Keuka (5-12, 5-5 North Eastern Athletic Conference). Paige's previous career-high of 23 points came during a loss at Wells College on Jan. 18, 2012.

Freshman Joe Tortolon (Dundee, NY/Dundee) added career-bests in both points (14) and rebounds (8) for the Storm, which completed the season sweep of the Fighting Tigers (1-18, 1-8 NEAC). Keuka defeated SUNY Cobleskill 69-49 on Dec. 10, 2011 for its first win of the season.

After hitting only 5 of 17 three-pointers in the first half, second-year head coach Thad Phillips said his team changed up its game plan going into the second half.

"Our guys are realizing that if we're not hitting our '3s' we don't have to keep settling for '3s' and we decided to attack the rim, and today we attacked the rim a whole heck of a lot harder in the second half, and that got us going," Phillips said.

"We had a close game with Cazenovia (on Jan. 25) and loss, and against SUNYIT (on Jan. 28) we had a shot at the end of the game but lost. Losing takes a toll on everyone, and losing the close games is a lot more emotional, so being able to get a close win is always nice, especially after losing four in a row. … Since (a loss to Harrisburg on Jan. 15) we've been getting better and have shown improvement in every game and today we put it all together."

Trailing 4-3, Paige scored seven points, junior Teddy Tuggles (Rochester, NY/Gates Chili) and freshman Jared Wagner (Pittsford, NY/McQuaid) each buried '3s' and Tortolon added a layup as the Storm used a 15-6 run to take an 18-10 lead nine minutes into the contest.

Wagner and Paige combined to score the next nine points as Keuka maintained its eight-point lead at 26-18, and Tuggles and Tortolon each made layups down the stretch to give the Storm a 31-23 edge heading into halftime.

"I've told the guys that there are going to be times when they're not shooting the ball well, but when the shots aren't falling there are the little things they can do for us," to help us succeed, Phillips said.

"When the offense isn't clicking, you can always play good defense and rebound, and Joe played good defense, had a great rebounding game and had some big steals (2) for us."

Using a 17-10 run to open the second half, Cobleskill clawed within 41-40 on a layup from Clint Foster with 13:37 remaining, but Paige scored four points, Wagner drilled another '3' and freshman Tyler Hixson (Shortsville, NY/Red Jacket) hit a jumper to cap a 9-0 run that pushed Keuka's lead up to 50-40 with 10:54 remaining.

Keuka made seven consecutive free throws, including Paige finishing off a three-point play for a 61-51 lead with 5:16 remaining, and the Storm finished hitting 19 of 26 at the free-throw line (73.1 percent). Wagner finished with nine points while Tuggles had seven points and five rebounds for Keuka.

Jack Jeffres (Pavilion, NY/Pavilion) scored 12 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while Brendan Doherty added 13 points for Cobleskill, which put four players in double-figures.

Both teams shot exactly 50 percent from the floor in the second half. Cobleskill hit 18 of 36 shots while Keuka was 12 of 24.

The Storm returns to action at 6 p.m. Wednesday night with NEAC rival Morrisville State comes to the Weed Physical Arts Center. Admission is free, so come out and support the Storm.

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