Senior guard Tommy Downing (Staten Island/Curtis) scored 28 points on four of seven shooting from the 3-point line and also added a team high three steals as Oswego State rebounded from a poor shooting performance three nights earlier to shoot 48 percent from the field and 75 percent from the free throw line en route to a 66-62 triumph over SUNY New Paltz on Friday, Feb. 13 at Max Ziel Gymnasium. The win kept the Lakers 13-8, 9-4 SUNYAC) in a tie for second place with Oneonta State, setting up a battle between both teams tomorrow evening at 8 p.m. at Ziel Gym.

Freshman forward Chad Burridge (Hannibal) dropped 13 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and tallied five blocked shots, while junior Stanley Francois (Valley Cottage/SUNY Cobleskill) added eight points and seven rebounds, and Kyle Reuter (Mexico) and Jose Uribe (Far Rockaway/Newtown) contributed seven points each, as the Lakers hit 24 of 50 shots from the field, including six of 13 from three-point range (46.2 percent), and made 12 of 16 shots from the line.

Junior forward Connor Cornine (Warwick) scored 23 points and pulled down nine rebounds, while freshman Harris Wichard (Merrick/Bellmore JFK) added 11 points in the losing effort for the Hawks (7-13, 4-7 SUNYAC), who pulled to within a point (40-39) with 13:57 to go in the second half but would never get any closer as Oswego answered with a 9-2 run to stretch the lead to 49-41 with 10:44 to play.

New Paltz would mount another challenge late in the game, pulling to within a basket on a layup by Corrine with 4:35 to play, but the Lakers went on a 9-3 run down the stretch to put the game out of reach at 64-56 with 21 seconds remaining, Downing accounted for all nine Oswego points in the run and scored the team's final 11 points of the second half.