UTICA - Junior guard Stanley Francois (Valley Cottage/SUNY Cobleskill) led all scorers with 19 points and was one of three starters scoring in double digits for Oswego State, but the Lakers, despite shooting 93.3 percent (14 of 15) from the foul line,let a 15-point lead in the second half get away as host Utica College shot 51.5 percent (17 of 33) from the field in the half, getting a game-winning layup from James Patterson with five seconds remaining, en route to a 69-68 victory in a non-conference matchup on Tuesday, Feb. 3.

Francois connected on seven of 13 shots from the floor, made all five free-throw attempts, grabbed nine rebounds, and registered four steals in 32 minutes played.

 Senior co-captains Tommy Downing (Staten Island/Curtis) and Kyle Reuter (Mexico) each connected on three 3-pointers in compiled 15 and 14 points, respectively, with Downing dishing out a game-leading seven assists, while freshman Chad Burridge (Hannibal) tallied game highs for rebounds (11) and blocked shots (seven) to go with eight points as the Lakers (11-7) shot 43.8 percent from the floor (14 of 32) and 50 percent (seven of 14) from beyond the arc in taking a 39-28 halftime lead before being held to 30 percent shooting (nine of 30) in the second half.

Oswego built a 43-28 lead in the opening 1:31 of the second half on back-to-back layups from Francois before the Pioneers slowly start to chip away at the lead.  Utica got the lead down to single nine points (53-44) with 13:03 to play, starting a 15-4 run to tie the game at 57-57 with 7:35 to go.

There were four  ties and four lead changes down the stretch as Francois gave Oswego a 68-67 lead on a pair of free throws with 33 seconds to play before Utica used three timeouts to set up the winning play.

Three players scored in double digit for the Pioneers (11-8), led by Doug Herring with 12 points and five assists.