The Oswego State women’s basketball team kicked off the Max Ziel Tournament with a 66-27 win over Medgar Evers College Friday night. With the victory, the Lakers move to 1-1 on the season while also giving head coach Sean Pinkerton the first win of his Oswego career. The Medgar Evers Cougars remain winless as they fall to 0-2.

Unlike their first game of the season in which the offense struggled, Oswego was able to start the game on an 8-0 run against the Cougars. The dominance on offense would continue for the Lakers as they led 32-8 going into halftime. Tatyana Fish led the team with eight points in the first half and finished with 13. Her teammate, Courtney Ameele also contributed a game high fifteen points to go along with five steals.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Lakers hauled in 58 rebounds with Morgan Wolanin grabbing a career-high 12 of them. Rachel Windhausen was just as effective as she had eight rebounds and three blocks.

Oswego will be back in action tomorrow as they try to capture the Max Ziel Tournament title at 4 pm against Elmira College.

by Ilyssa Weiner

Oswego, NY- Writer and Humanitarian Kevin Powell spoke at SUNY Oswego’s Sheldon Hall Ballroom on Feb. 16 as part of the school’s “I Am Oz” Diversity Speaker Series.

Powell stressed the importance of education and history to his audience. His mother, who only had an eighth grade education, pushed him to do well in school.

“She kept saying to me when I was a child ‘You’re going to go to college. You’re going to go to college. You’re going to go to college,” Powell said.

Powell went to Rutgers University. However, his love for reading and writing came at an early age when his mother took him to the library.

“She allowed me to roam around the library,” he said. “That’s how I ended up falling in love with books and eventually decided as a young person I wanted to be a writer.”

After his time at Rutgers, Powell joined the cast of the very first season of MTV’s The Real World. At the time of taping, he and the rest of the cast had no idea how successful the show was going to be. Because of the show’s success, Powell was able to dig deeper into the world of pop culture.

“I love pop culture,” he said. “I think it’s a useful tool for reaching people and talking about serious issues.”

In 2011, Powell co-founded Building Knowledge (BK) Nation, a progressive non-profit organization focused on civil and human rights. The organization has worked on several racial profiling cases, including the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases, and was also a deep supporter for the recent Women’s March.

Despite being the co-founder of the organization, Powell doesn’t believe in titles beyond that.

“We’re all equals and all our voices matter in the organization and that’s how we operate,” he said.

Powell’s most recent book, The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey Into Manhood, is available on Amazon.

Powell autographed copies of his latest book after his speech was over.