CORTLAND, N.Y. – Jahidi Wallace scored 21 points, including the game-tying 3-pointer as time expired at the end of regulation, as Brockport clinched the SUNYAC men's basketball regular-season crown with an 86-80 overtime win at Cortland.

 

Brockport won its 14th straight game to improve to 21-3 overall and 16-1 in the SUNYAC. The Golden Eagles will host the SUNYAC semifinals and finals next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 28-29.

 

With the loss, Cortland fell to 16-8 overall and 10-7 in the SUNYAC. The Red Dragons are locked into the fifth seed for next week's six-team SUNYAC playoffs and will play in the quarterfinals next Tuesday at either Oswego or Oneonta. Cortland will host Geneseo to close out the regular season Saturday, Feb. 22, at 4 p.m.

Austin Grunder (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson) led Cortland with 29 points and 15 rebounds, and in the process set a Cortland school single-season record with 347 rebounds. The previous school mark of 337 rebounds was established by Bob Chrust in the 1968-69 season. Grunder also became just the eighth player in program history, and the first since Tom Williams in 2000-01, to score more than 500 points in a season; he's scored 513 points in 23 games this winter (22.3 per game).

Eric Edwards (Binghamton) finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds and Brendan Fitzpatrick (Plainview/Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK) ended with 11 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Jake DiSanto (Victor) led the Red Dragons with four assists.

 

Wallace was one of four double-figure scorers for the Golden Eagles. Tyler Collins scored 19 points and handed out five assists. Monte Stroman scored 13 points and pulled down eight rebounds, and Antonio Alvarez finished with 11 points and three steals.

 

Cortland trailed 33-29 at halftime but opened up a five-point lead twice in the second half. The Red Dragons were up 71-66 with 2:19 left after two Grunder free throws, but Wallace made two foul shots at the 1:49 mark and Stroman hit a layup with 1:17 remaining to cut Cortland's lead to one.

 

Fitzpatrick hit a short jumper with 51 seconds left to put Cortland ahead by three, 73-70. Justin Summers dunked off a feed from Wallace with 36 seconds left, but Cortland was able to break Brockport's pressure for an uncontested Edwards layup with 26 seconds remaining to push the lead back to three.

 

Brockport, following a timeout with 14 seconds left, inbounded the ball in the frontcourt. Collins was forced to take a highly contested 3-pointer from the right side with about five seconds remaining. The shot was short of the rim, but on the battle for the rebound the ball squirted free into the lane. Danny Ashley grabbed the ball and alertly fed a pass to Wallace, who buried a 3-pointer at the horn to send the game into overtime tied at 75.

 

Cortland never led in the overtime, but did tie the game twice. Grunder's layup with 1:35 left knotted the game at 80. Each team missed a shot on its next possession, and Stroman gave the guests the lead for good on a layup with 47 seconds left. Ashley registered a steal with 33 seconds remaining and Collins made two free throws with 21 ticks remaining. Cortland missed a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left and Ashley's two foul shots closed the scoring with 12 seconds remaining.