ONEONTA - Sophomore guard Jose Uribe (Far Rockaway/Newtown) broke a 54-54 tie with back-to-back three-point field goals in the final three minutes of the game  to give visiting Oswego State a 68-63 victory over Oneonta State in SUNYAC men's basketball action on Tuesday, Jan. 27 at the Dewar Arena. The win put the Lakers (11-5, 7-2 SUNYAC) in a tie for first place in the conference standings with the Red Dragons (12-6, 7-2 SUNYAC), who will play each other on Saturday, Feb. 14 at Max Ziel Gymnasium in a game that could determine the conference's regular season title and the top seed in the SUNYAC Playoffs.

Uribe finished with 13 points coming off of the bench, hitting four of five shots from the field, all coming from 3-point range. 

Trailing by two points at halftime, Oswego battled back to tie the score at 30-30 and then took its first lead of the game on a made free throw by freshman Chad Burridge (Hannibal). Burridge was a terror on the boards for the Lakers as he finished the game with 17 rebounds, including seven off the offensive glass.  As a team, Oswego out rebounded Oneonta 50-42 including a 23-13 advantage off the offensive backboard.

Oneonta put together a 12-2 run to regain the lead at 42-33 with just less than 12 minutes remaining in the contest. Junior Michael Grimes led the charge with eight of his 16 second half points. Grimes was the top scorer for the Red Dragons with 20 points.

Oswego began to chip away at the lead and came all the way back to knot the score at 51-51 on a three-point basket by senior Tommy Downing (Staten Island/Curtis).  Downing finished the contest with 20 points to lead all scorers, making 6-of-7 free throws down the stretch.

The game was tied again at 54 before back-to-back three's by Uribe gave the Lakers a lead they would not relinquish.

SUNY Oneonta jumped out to a 4-0 lead before building it into an eight-point bulge at 12-4 at the 12:06 mark on a good jumper by Senior Ryan Morin, who finished with 17 points.  The Red Dragons were shooting over 50 percent from the floor for most of the opening half and finished shooting 46 percent.

After a cold start, Oswego started to connect from long range and cut into Oneonta¹s lead to the point of getting to within one point at the 8:20 mark on a three-pointer by Uribe.

The Red Dragons did move its lead back to five points and held a 26-24 lead at halftime.

(Game story courtesy of Oneonta State Sports Information)