NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – Cortland rallied from a seven-point deficit early in the second half and the Red Dragons defeated host New Paltz, 82-71, in a game crucial to Cortland's SUNYAC men's basketball playoff hopes.
 
Cortland improved to 11-11 overall and is 7-8 in the SUNYAC with three games remaining next week. The Red Dragons are in seventh place, one half game behind sixth-place Geneseo (8-8) and a game and a half behind fifth-place Potsdam (9-7). The top six teams qualify for the SUNYAC postseason tournament. Cortland wraps the regular season next week with two games versus Buffalo State (away Tuesday, home Friday) and home next Saturday versus Geneseo.
 
Austin Grunder (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson) led Cortland with 33 points, nine rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots. He surpassed the 30-point mark for the fourth time this season. Grunder made 13-of-23 shots from the field and all seven of his free throws.
 
AJ Lawton (Saratoga Springs) made 5-of-9 3-pointers and finished with 15 points and four assists. Twelve of his points came during the second half. Danny Linehan (Blauvelt/Tappan Zee) tallied 11 points, including three 3-pointers, and dished out three assists, and Kareem Lubin (South Blooming Grove/Washingtonville) was 4-for-4 from the field and wrapped the afternoon with eight points, eight rebounds and a team-high five assists.
 
New Paltz (13-9, 10-6 SUNYAC), which dealt SUNYAC leader Oswego its first league loss of the year just one night earlier, was led by Solomon Neuhaus with 16 points. Lucas Seyoum had 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting from deep, Brandon Scott tallied 14 points and Sean St. Lucia scored 12 points. St. Lucia also finished with eight rebounds and seven assists and Scott had eight boards and four assists.
 
The first half featured six ties and seven lead changes, and the largest lead for either team was four points. New Paltz led 31-30 at the break. Cortland led 41-40 about four minutes into the second half after a Linehan 3-pointer, but the Hawks rattled off eight straight points to take a 48-41 lead with 14:31 remaining.
 
From that point, however, Cortland strung together a 13-0 run over a three-minute span to take 54-48 lead. That streak featured seven points from Grunder and six from Lawton. The Red Dragons pushed their lead to 62-52 on a Riley McEvoy (Homer) jumper with 8:24 left, and Cortland eventually took its largest advantage at 70-57 on Lawton's trey with about four minutes remaining. The Red Dragons kept the margin at eight points or higher from that point.
 
Cortland shot 59 percent from the field in the second half and 48 percent for the game. The Red Dragons were 9-for-28 from the arc and 17-of-19 (90 percent) from the foul line. New Paltz finished at 42 percent overall and 32 percent (7-of-22) from deep. The Hawks made all 14 of their free throws.