PLATTSBURGH, NY - Coming as close as five points under the five-minute mark, the Plattsburgh State men's basketball team ultimately fell to St. Lawrence 77-65 in non-conference action. Despite trailing by as much as 18 in the half, the Cards fought back and made the game a two-possession contest on several occasions, but could not overcome the Saints.
Kevin Tabb (Brooklyn, NY/Thomas Jefferson) had a great shooting night for Plattsburgh, working around foul trouble to score 22 points on 8-12 shooting from the floor and 6-8 from deep. Myles Jones (Alexandria, VA/Blue Ridge School) knocked down two threes en route to 13 points and Sheriff Conteh (Bronx, NY/Our Saviour Lutheran) had his first double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds, also adding three steals. For St. Lawrence, Trey Syroka led the way with 19 points on 7-11 shooting from the field, adding three steals to his line.
The Saints were extremely efficient from the field, shooting over 58% from the floor and shooting 5-12 (41.7%) from downtown. Plattsburgh also had a strong shooting night, knocking down 44.6% of their shots and 45.6% of their three-point attempts. The Cards struggled from the line on the night, however, leaving nine points up for grabs by going 6-15 from the line.
Plattsburgh falls to 1-2 with the loss and will travel to Cobleskill this weekend, playing the Fighting Tigers on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 1:30 p.m. St. Lawrence rises to 1-0 in their season-opening win and will play SUNY Potsdam in their home-opener on Friday, Nov. 18.
The first 10 minutes of game action saw fairly even play from both sides as a Conteh layup knotted the game at 17 at the 9:58 mark. Over the next five minutes, the Saints would extend their lead to double-digits twice, as an Aidan McCauley free throw put his team up ten. Jones knocked down a deep three on the next possession to push the lead back to seven, but Syroka responded right back with a three of his own. Syroka would follow with another free throw to give St. Lawrence their largest lead of the half at 35-24. As the half was coming to a close, Syroka added another two to the score with a lay-in with 18 seconds left, but Ladan Graves (Pelham, NY/Pelham Memorial) was able to pull the game back within single digits, knocking down a jumper at the buzzer to bring the score to 41-33.
The second half saw the Cardinal deficit hold right around 10 points early on, but a 12-2 run pushed the lead to 59-41 for the Saints with over nine minutes remaining in regulation. Despite the big deficit, the Cardinals rattled off a run off their own, as a lay-in plus the foul gave Jones the old-fashioned three-point play to cap an 11-0 run and put Plattsburgh down seven. A Tabb layup with 4:27 on the game clock put the Cards down 64-59, but that would the closest the team would get for the remainder of the game, as the Saints closed the game out with a 13-6 run to pull away for a 77-65 win.
Erik Salo (Delmar, NY/Bethlehem Central) had seven points and ten rebounds for the Cards in 28 minutes of action.