OSWEGO, NY — Men’s Basketball rolled through the New Paltz Hawks Tuesday night as the Lakers won 80-55. Oswego took a commanding lead in the first half as the team scored 54 points compared to the Hawk’s 25. This is thanks to senior Joe Sullivan dropping 20 points due to seven field goals and two three pointers in his twenty two minutes played. Colby Moultrie stepped into the game and secured 12 points in only nine minutes played after netting four three pointers. This is Oswego’s 15th win of the season and ninth conference win to keep the Lakers in fourth place in the SUNYAC standings. The team looks ahead as they travel with Women’s Basketball to Cortland on Saturday for a 4 p.m. tip off.
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Women’s Basketball Ends Season on High-Note
OSWEGO, NY – The women’s basketball team split their games this weekend to finish the season including their final win of the 2022-2023 season.
Friday’s game concluded with the Lakers losing to Brockport 53-49 in overtime. Very little happened in the first quarter as both teams struggled from the paint. The game started out with Brockport’s Anna Felice making a three-pointer to give the Golden Eagles a 3-0 lead. After that little happened between the two teams. The score was tied twice in the quarter with the Golden Eagles taking a 7-5 lead over the Lakers after quarter one. The Lakers went 20% the field and the Golden Eagles went 15.38% from the field. The second quarter was the same story as the first quarter. The quarter began with Chastin Giles making her first three-pointer of the day with 8:21 left in the second quarter. Less than 40 seconds later Sydney Hoefs would connect on her second three-pointer of the day to put the Lakers up 13-7. Juliana Logana would extend the Lakers lead to eight 15-7. The Golden Eagles would rally but the Lakers would lead 19-16 at halftime. Julia Logana and Sydney Hoefs would both lead the Lakers with six points at the half.
The third quarter would start with Zairea Hannah scoring to put the Golden Eagles down by one. The Lakers would respond about 30 seconds later with Caitie Lilly scoring to extend the Lakers lead to 21-18. The Golden Eagles manage to come close to taking the lead away from the Lakers but the Lakers held strong. Brockport struggled from the field in the second quarter going 3-16 and shooting 18.75%. The Lakers led 33-26 heading into the fourth quarter. Logan Castiglione helped extend the Lakers lead to ten connecting on a three-pointer with 9:10 left in the fourth quarter. Anna Lee would tie the game for the Golden Eagles at 41 with 1:27 left in the fourth quarter. The game would be tied at 41 going into overtime. In overtime, Zairea Hannah extended the Golden Eagles lead to 43-41 in the beginning of the overtime period. Chastin Giles would bring the Lakers back connecting on her second three-pointer of the game with 2:40 left in overtime. Shannon Blankenship would respond 28 seconds later making a three-pointer to help extend the Golden Eagles lead to 50-44 with 2:12 left in the game. Chastin Giles made a free-throw which brought the Lakers down 51-49 with 16 seconds left. Anna Felice would seal the Lakers fate with two free-throws to make the final score 53-49. Juliana Logana and Chastin Giles would both lead the Lakers with nine points on the day.
The second game saw the Lakers rebound from their loss against Brockport getting their final win of the season defeating the Fredonia Blue Devils 65-51. The Lakers found themselves in a bad position in the beginning of the first quarter trailing 8-0 with just 1:48 into the game, including giving up two three pointers to Fredonia’s Renee Park and Jaden Sciotti. Elaina Johnson would score the first points of the game for the Lakers to put them down 8-2. Sydney Hoefs made a three-pointer to bring the Lakers down by three and Shania Iglesias cut into the Blue Devils lead by cutting the Lakers deficit to just two at 10-8. The Lakers rallied to tie the game at 18 at the end of quarter one. Juliana Logana helped the Lakers take the lead at two at the beginning of the second quarter. With 4:50 left in the second quarter, Sydney Hoefs made another three-pointer to extend the Lakers lead to 12. Chastin Giles made a layup to extend the Lakers lead to 14 their biggest lead of the day so far in the game. Fredonia’s Allie Wandell made a three-pointer with 46 seconds left in the second quarter but the Lakers would lead 40-32 at the half.
The third quarter began with no scoring until 7:23 left in the third quarter with Mary Culeton making two free-throws to cut into the Lakers lead at 40-34. With 3:54 left in the third quarter Alena Wright cut into the Lakers lead at 41-38. The Lakers extended their lead to 49-38 at the end of the third quarter. Fredonia’s Sarah Seaman cut into he Lakers lead to seven making a three-pointer. Logan Castiglione made back-to-back three-pointers to seal the Blue Devils fate. Elaina Johnson added the final point of the day for the Lakers for their 65-51 win over the Blue Devils. The Lakers went off in terms of scoring as they had four double-digit scorers on the day with Logan Castiglione, Elaina Johnson, Sydney Hoefs, and Juliana Logana who would all finish the day with 10+ points. Elaina Johnson had a career game leading the Lakers with 18 points on the day. Sydney Hoefs would lead the Lakers in both games with 19 points and led the Lakers with four three-pointers in both games. Overall, Logan Castiglione would have a career year leading the Lakers in points with 209, her previous record was 119 points last season. Karleigh Leo was second on the team with 200 points as a transfer student who made an immediate impact right away. Shania Iglesias would also improve this season as she finished third on the team in points with 176.
The Lakers conclude the season with their best finish at 13-12 their best record since the 2012-2013 season. They’ll head into the 2023-2024 season with a lot of confidence after a resurgence year from their team.
PHOTO CREDITS PROVIDED BY OSWEGO STATE ATHLETICS
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Oswego’s Men’s Lacrosse Team Set to Begin 2021 Season
OSWEGO, NY — The Oswego State Men’s Lacrosse Team is set to take on SUNY Oneonta on Saturday, March 20th to kick off their 2021 season. This will be the Oswego Men’s Lacrosse team’s first action in over a year due to the pandemic. However, unlike prior seasons, conference play is set to begin earlier than ever before, starting March 26th versus Geneseo. Senior goaltender Kevin O’Donnell understands just how important these early games are to set the tone for the rest of the season.
“With SUNYACs coming up so soon and those being the most important games for our team, the level of expectancy exceeds any other season in my opinion,” O’Donnell said. “Especially with the teams were playing, Morrisville, Oneonta, and then the rest of the SUNY division, it’s important that were on our A-game.”
O’Donnell is now a team captain and is looking to surpass 400 career saves in the coming games.
Being that this is the Lakers first game since March of 2020, it’s important that they eliminate any mistakes or confusion they might have. Head Coach Drew Bezek, who is going into his 7th season on the coaching staff, believes his team needs to master their game plan early on in order to be successful.
“With early season games, it’s always about limiting mistakes and doing what we need to do. A lot of times with the beginning part of the season, you’re not so worried about your competition and what they run. It’s us being super-efficient and consistent at what we’re trying to do.”
Although many things are different this season for the players, coaches, and staff, film sessions and scouting remain an important aspect of Oswego’s success. However, since teams only played a few games in 2020, the Lakers will have to anticipate Oneonta’s game plan based off what they saw from early last year.
Coach Bezek said, “We’ll treat this year similar to the past where for the first game of the year, your kind of going off tendencies from the previous year. We’re not going to know some of their new players, but from the film, we could try to piece together how they run their system.”
The Lakers have won their last four games vs. Oneonta dating back to 2016 and look to extend their win streak to five on Saturday.
Package Aired Thursday 3/18/21 on Nightly News
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Oswego State Baseball Splits at Brockport
Brockport, NY — The Oswego State Baseball team kicked off their 2021 season with a double header split against SUNY Brockport Saturday afternoon. Oswego was able to put the Brockport team away in the first game with a 7-2 victory but the Golden Eagles would out run the Lakers team in the second game with a 14-2 win. This was the first SUNYAC double header for the Lakers as the team moves to 1-1 to start the season.
Game number one began with Oswego scoring first as Brendon Frank stole second base and would make it home on a single hit from Paul Tammaro. Tammaro would then be driven home off a hit from Ryan Enos which would be followed up with a Ryan Weiss hit that would put Oswego ahead 3-0 in the third inning. The Golden Eagles would cut the score down in the next two innings as the Lakers led now 3-2 heading into the seventh inning. In the eighth, Myles Felton would score after Tammaro added another hit to his totals in the contest. Oswego would add insurance runs in the ninth inning to gain their first win of the season. Kieran Finnegan and Anthony Van Fossen split the pitching duties as the pitchers combined for eight strikeouts and only allowed one run each.
The second game in the double header would have a completely different story as the Golden Eagles dropped double digits on the Lakers squad. Oswego would score a solo homerun off the bat of Jacob Levine which opened up the scoring in this seven inning contest. However, Brockport would score in the bottom of the inning to take over the lead heading into the second inning. The Golden Eagles would add to their total in the third inning with six more runs. Frank Levanti would score the second run of the contest for Oswego but that would not be enough as Brockport would take game two. Ronald Loomis would take the loss on the mound giving up six hits and striking out one player.
Oswego holds second place in the SUNYAC West Division standings behind Brockport. Fredonia remains in third with an 0-2 conference record. The top team in each division will advance to the SUNYAC Championships along with two more teams that will be decided based on conference record. Oswego continues their 2021 season on the road against New Paltz for another SUNYAC double header. The Lakers travel to face the Hawks on Tuesday, April 6th, with games scheduled for 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. as Oswego looks to bounce back from the second game in Brockport. Oswego team returns home for a non-conference double header on Thursday, April 8th, at 1:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. against Alfred State College. WTOP 10 will have continued coverage of the Oswego Baseball team as the group continues their 2021 season.
