The Sage Colleges' men's basketball team hosted the Panthers of SUNY-Old Westbury on Saturday afternoon in the Skyline Conference regular-season finale. The Gators posted a thrilling two overtime win, 98-96 to hand the Panthers their first Skyline loss of the season. Sage, which earned the No. 5 in the Skyline Conference Tournament, knocked off the Panthers, a feat that the league teams had failed to do in 17 previous tries. The Sage win snaps the Panthers' 12-game win streak in the process.
The Panthers bring a record of 22-4 overall and 17-1 in the league into the Skyline Conference Tournament, which opens play on February 19. The tournament appearance for Sage is the first in the program's four-year history. Sage stands at 13-12 overall and went 8-10 in the league and will travel to No. 4 seeded Farmingdale State College for a quarterfinal contest on February 19 with a game time yet to be determined with the Rams.
The two teams finished regulation knotted at 78-78 as a last second jumper from Sage's junior Ryan LaBelle (East Berne, NY/Berne Know Westerlo) failed to fall to give the Gators a win in regulation. Knotted at 78-78, the two teams played an additional period and were once again knotted with the score deadlocked at 89-89 after one overtime. In the second overtime, the teams were tied at 92-92 for the 17th tie of the game as junior Mason Horne (Albany, NY/LaSalle Institute) hit a pull up jumper at 1:53. The Gators jumped out to a 95-92 lead as senior guard Will Hennep (Wheatley Heights, NY/Half Hollow Hills West) drained a three-pointer at 1:02. The Panthers answered back with a layup by sophomore forward Josh Hill (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Loughlin) at 0:40 to cut the lead to one point, 95-94. The game would be tied once again at 96-96 on a jumper from OW's senior center Darnell Chavis (New York, NY/Vanguard) at 0:09 before Horne hit the game-winning shot on a jumper down the lane at 0:04 to give Sage a 98-96 lead and the eventual win.
For the game, Farbotko finished with 26 points and elevated his program-leading career total to 1,232 points. Horne netted 23 points and is moving closer to his 1,000th career point as he now has 975 points and is riding a Sage single-season record with his 410 points this season.
For the second time in a week, Hennep surpassed his previous career-best performance as he netted 15 points with four steals. LaBelle connected for 12 points, while junior guard Jeff Stopera (Scotia, NY/Scotia Glenville) added 14 points with eight assists.
Senior center Ryan Sager (Stuyvesant, NY/Ichabod Crane) chipped in for eight points but led Sage in rebounding with 14 caroms and a pair of blocks. Sager, who holds Sage's career block record now has 32 this season with 75.
Old Westbury's Hill finished with a game-leading 31 points and was hot hitting 11-12 from the floor and 9-11 from the free throw line. Junior guard Tyrik Tucker (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Ford) added 17 points with a team-leading eight rebounds. SeniorKerel Mitchell (Brooklyn, NY/Erasmus Hall) and senior guard Rashawn McCarthy (Westbury, NY/Westbury) each finished with 13 points in the 250 minute long marathon.