MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – As was the case in last season's meeting, the Plattsburgh State men's basketball team struggled shooting the basketball against non-conference opponent Middlebury, dropping a 71-49 decision on Saturday afternoon at Pepin Gymnasium.
 
The Cardinals shot just 27.3-percent (18-for-66) in the game, and failed to reach the 50-point mark in a game for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
 
Sophomore Eli Bryant stood out for the Cardinals in an otherwise disappointing performance. Getting his first start for the red and white, the Staten Island, N.Y., native scored 18 points and gathered five rebounds. Four of his seven buckets were triples, accounting for Plattsburgh State's only three-pointers on the afternoon.
 
Things were looking good for the Cardinals early on, as they held a 4-0 advantage a minute and a half in. After team-leading scorer Kyle Richardson laid in his only basket of the game to make it 6-2, senior Xavier Thomas would collect a steal and throw down a dunk on the ensuing fast break.
 
The momentum was taken away from Plattsburgh State following Thomas' dunk, and the Cardinals never regained any of it.
 
Panthers' junior standout Matt St. Amour scored seven of his game-high 19 points in the next minute, forcing a Plattsburgh State timeout.
 
The Cardinals scored just seven points over the final 12 minutes of the opening stanza and trailed 36-17 at the break.
 
The scoring drought would continue into the second half as Plattsburgh State's first basket didn't come until six and a half minutes in: a three-pointer from Bryant.
 
In that time, Middlebury upped its lead to at most 34 points.
 
Plattsburgh State turned the ball over 20 times in the setback, and now drops to 4-2 on the season. The Panthers get back to .500 at 5-5.
 
The Cardinals will regroup and head to Miami next week for the first-ever HoopMIA D3 Holiday Shootout.
 
There, they will face two non-conference opponents. On Saturday, Plattsburgh State will play Stevenson at 2 p.m., while on Sunday afternoon, the Cardinals will meet UMass-Dartmouth at 3 p.m. Live stat and video links for both games will be available at gocardinalsports.com.