NEW PALTZ, N.Y. - The Cortland men's basketball team won its eighth State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) title and first since 2016 with a 61-52 win at top-seeded New Paltz.
 
The third-seeded Red Dragons (17-11) avenged two regular-season losses to the Hawks and earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III tournament. The 64-team tournament field will be announced on Monday at noon on NCAA.com.
 
Tournament MVP Kendall Arcuri (Staten Island/St. Joseph by-the-Sea) led Cortland with 16 points and 12 rebounds. He scored 12 points in the second half. Arcuri averaged 17 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in three playoff games. All-tournament team selection Joel Davis (Watertown) finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks. He made 3-of-4 3-pointers, and he finished the tournament with 34 points and 32 rebounds in three contests.
 
Kendrick Wilson (Wheatley Heights/Moravian Prep (NC)) scored 14 points and dished out three assists. He was 6-of-11 from the floor overall and 2-of-3 from the arc. Aaron Coston (Kerhonkson/Rondout Valley) added nine points and two blocks and Gerrad Beaubrun (Baldwin) shared the team lead with three assists.
 
New Paltz (19-8), the 2024 SUNYAC champion, was led by all-tournament team selections Sean St. Lucia and A.J. Knight. St. Lucia tallied 17 points and had three steals and Knight scored 15 points. Mitchell Cumings finished with 10 points and Dakoda Smith registered 11 rebounds and six assists.
 
Cortland shot 40 percent from the floor overall but hit 48 percent (10-of-21) from 3-point range. New Paltz finished at 36 percent overall and 32 percent (7-of-22) from deep.
 
New Paltz led for most of the game's first eight minutes, but Cortland eventually built a 12-point lead at 34-22 with 2:04 left in the period and led 34-25 at halftime. The Red Dragons' lead briefly jumped back to 12 points on a Davis 3-pointer early in the second half, but the hosts scored nine straight points and were down only 37-34 with 13:06 remaining.
 
Cortland, however, never gave up the lead in the second half. Arcuri hit a layup with 10:49 left, followed by a 3-pointer and a layup, to give the Red Dragons a 47-36 lead with 8:24 remaining. The Hawks eventually closed to within five at 57-52 on a St. Lucia trey with 1:20 remaining, but Cortland scored the final four points on a Gaige Armbrewster (Oakfield/Oakfield-Alabama) layup with 33 seconds left and two Arcuri free throws in the closing seconds.
 
Joining Arcuri, Davis, St. Lucia and Knight on the all-tournament team were Plattsburgh's Kevin Tabb and Oswego's Gary McLane.
 
With the Cortland women's team also winning a SUNYAC title Saturday with a home victory versus New Paltz, the Red Dragons earned both basketball league titles in the same season for just the second time overall and the first since 2000.