OSWEGO, N.Y. – The Oswego State men's basketball team dropped its season-opening contest to the Nazareth College Golden Flyers—63-57—on Tuesday evening. Oswego starts the season 0-1, while Nazareth opens 1-0.

An Oswego rally led by Brian Sortino fell short after the team fought back from a 13-point second-half deficit. Sortino tallied eight of the team's final 10 points in the contest and sparked the Oswego run by draining a 21-footer with just over three minutes remaining.

The pre-season All-American started the contest by nailing his first three shots for nine points to give Oswego a 9-8 lead. Sortino would go on to score 13 in the opening 13:23, only being interrupted by Keith Tyson and Tyler Pierre.

Tyson recorded his third-career double-double in the contest and first since Feb. 12, 2016 at Potsdam. After missing his first two shots on the evening, the Syracuse, N.Y. native got his third try to fall at 12:09. He would go on to tally 14 points on 7-for-14 shooting (50.0%) and pull down 11 boards, tying a career-high, which he set at Brockport in 2014.

Oswego was dominant on the glass, outrebounding the Golden Flyers by eight (44-36). Aside from Tyson's 11 boards, Mykelle Krecko (11) and Pierre (6) pulled down 17 of their own rebounds. Pierre also scored eight points in his first-Oswego-campaign. The performance down low allowed the Lakers to score 15 second-chance points and win the points in the paint battle 22-14 (+8).

Men's basketball returns to action at 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening for their first game of the Max Ziel Tournament versus SUNY Maritime College.