Oswego State had all five starter scoring in double digits, with freshman forward
Chad Burridge tallying a career-high 30 points to go with 10 rebounds, and senior guard
Tommy Downing (Staten Island/Curtis) scoring 26 points and dishing out a career-high 14 assists, as the Lakers held off a late second-half charge by SUNY Potsdam to hold on to a 97-82 victory in the quarterfinals of the 2009 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Men's Basketball Tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at Max Ziel Gymnasium.
The Lakers, who came into the game as the tournament's third seed will host fifth seeded fredonia, seventh seeded Cortland, and eighth seeded Brockport in the two-day semifinal and championship rounds on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 27-28. Oswego, who swept all three teams in home-and-home series during the regular season, is the highest remaining seed in the tournament, as top seeded Geneseo and second seeded Buffalo State all fell in opening round action.
Burridge, who played 34 minutes of action despite being in foul trouble in the second half with four fouls, connected on 11 of 15 shots from the floor, going 2-for-3 from the three-point line, and made six of eight free throws. He also pulled dished out four assists and compiled a career-high eight blocked shots, two shy of the sinfgle-season school record of 82 set during the 2007-08 season by Mahamoud Jabbi. Burridge compied 18 points and four blocks in the opening half as the Lakers held a 48-38 lead at halftime.
Downing shot 7-for-18 from the floor, hitting a pair of three-pointers, and made 10 of 13 free throws. He tallied 14 points and five assists in the second half.
Senior Kyle Reuter (Mexico) and freshman Conor Monaghan (Brooklyn/Xavier) scored 12 points apiece, both going 2-for-3 from three-point range, while Monaghan adding four rebounds and four assists, while junior Stanley Francois (Valley Cottage/SUNY Cobleskill) contributed 10 points and nine rebounds. Oswego shot 50 percent (30 of 60) from the floor, 47.1 percent from beyond the arc (8-for-17), and 77.4 percent (24-for-31) from the line.
The Lakers held their biggest lead of the game at 21 points, 70-49, with 11:03 to play in the second half before Potsdam went on a 12-0 run over a 4:24 stretch to cut the lead to nine points. The Bears would pull to within eight points on two occasions, and got as close as seven points with 2:57 to play before Oswego scored six straight points to take an 82-69 lead witrh 1:30 remaining in the game on a Francois layup, and went 10-for-12 from the line the rest of the way, with Downing going 6-for-8 and Reuter hitting four of six shots.
Alvin Dike was the top scorer for seventh-seeded Potsdam (12-14) with 26 points on 11-for-16 field goal shooting and four of five shooting from the line. Serge Clement came off of the bench to tally 22 points (4-for-7 from three-point range), five rebounds, and three steals.
Oswego will play Brockport in the second of two semifinal games at 8 p.m. Cortland will face Fredonia in the opening game at 6 p.m. The Championship is scheduled for the following day at a time to be determined. .....
