CORTLAND, N.Y. – Junior Brian Manning (Elmira/Southside) scored 23 points and pulled down seven rebounds as Cortland nipped Fredonia, 72-68, to clinch second place in the SUNYAC standings. The Red Dragons, now 18-6 overall and 13-4 in the conference, are two games ahead of third-place Buffalo State with one regular-season game remaining.
Cortland will host Buffalo State Saturday at 4 p.m., but will not move from the second-place spot in the standings regardless of the outcome. The Red Dragons are also guaranteed to host Plattsburgh, which will finish seventh in the league, in the conference tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at a time to be determined.
Manning tied his career high with five made three-pointers in eight attempts and finished 8-of-14 overall from the field. Junior Jesse Winter (Rockville Centre/South Side) scored 12 points and distributed four assists. Winter is nine points shy of becoming the 20th player in team history to reach 1,000 career points.
Junior Harrison Hefele (Greenlawn/Friends Academy) finished with 11 points and three assists. Sophomore Kevin McMahon (Hoosick Falls) scored eight points and tied Manning for the team lead with seven rebounds.
Julius Bryant (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) made 10-of-17 shots for Fredonia (13-10, 8-9 SUNYAC) and led the team with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Damien Goodwin II (Buffalo/Buffalo East) made his first four shots, all three-pointers in the first six minutes, and finished with 16 points. Jonathon Herrera (Queens/Flushing) registered a game-high five assists. Fredonia is locked into the sixth-place spot in the league standings and will learn of its quarterfinal opponent after Saturday's games are completed.
Goodwin's early hot shooting helped the Blue Devils take an early 17-6 lead. Fredonia led by 12 points three times in the first half, the last at 30-18 after a Bryant layup with 5:35 remaining.
Cortland scored the next 13 points, including five straight by Manning and back-to-back three-pointers by junior Jeremy Smith (Bronx/Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy), and led 31-30 with 2:12 on the clock. The Red Dragons held a 34-33 halftime lead and never trailed in the second half.
Cortland grabbed its largest lead at 53-41 on a Hefele layup with 10:49 left. Fredonia answered with an 11-2 run, capped by a Kevin Mitchell (Lake Luzerne/Hadley-Luzerne) three-pointer, and trailed 57-54 with 5:30 left.
A Hefele layup with 3:33 left put Cortland up by nine, but the Blue Devils clawed back and were within two at 68-66 when Bryant scored with 28 seconds left. Winter made two foul shots with 20 seconds left, but Goodwin was fouled on a three-point attempt with 11 seconds left and Fredonia down four. He made the first two free throws, but missed the third and Manning grabbed the relatively uncontested rebound. Manning sealed the victory with two foul shots with nine seconds remaining.