OSWEGO — The Men’s Hockey team had their last exhibition game this past Saturday against the Nazareth Golden Flyers. Oswego looked to continue their success from last time out and that occurred when Jody Sullivan scored off a dish from senior Joseph Molinaro. Both players would later team up again towards the end of the first period to finish with a goal and an assist for each. Travis Broughman and Tyler Currie would both add a goal to keep the Lakers ahead of the Golden Flyers for a 4-3 final score. Oswego starts their regular season against Cortland on Friday at the Marano Campus Center.
Photo Provided by Alexis Fragapane
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Where There’s Sparks, There’s Fire
Bethlehem, PA – The Lakers sailed down to Moravian College for the 40th Steel Club Classic picking up two wins on the perfect weekend. Their first matchup was against Montclair State who had scored over a hundred points in multiple games this season but couldn’t produce against the reigning SUNYAC championship defense of the Oswego Lakers. The Redhawks scored 73 points good enough for a season-low in their first 11 games this year, but it wasn’t a cakewalk win for the Lakers.
Montclair State ran a baseline to baseline trap on Oswego from the opening tip until the horn sounded at the end of the game. Senior Brandon Gartland shot 5 for 6 from beyond the arc exploiting no-easy-inside-bucket Redhawk defense. Junior Liam Sanborn finished the game with 22 points and helped control the pace of the game when Montclair began to chip away at the lead in the second half. Coach Leone expressed that Liam is “the guy who runs the show for us” and as good as he was on Saturday, it was a different story come Sunday.
Sanborn got into foul trouble early in the game against the Moravian College Greyhounds and didn’t see the floor much in the first half. Ending the game with 6 total points, Sanborn wasn’t the normal floor general for the Lakers. Freshman Jeremiah Sparks was the ‘spark horse’ on Sunday scoring 32 points bringing his total up to 50 on the weekend. Sparks plugged the hole in his offensive game after having five turnovers on Saturday against the Redhawks and Coach Leone was pleased with his performance.
“[Jeremiah] has obviously got some g-d given ability with his athleticism,” Coach Leone praised, “tonight might have been Jeremiah’s best game in terms of moving the ball when he was double-teamed.”
Sparks was also a presence on the defensive end tonight registering two steals and three monster blocks against the Hounds–the only three blocks of the game for Oswego. Freshman Kaleb Cook was in the backcourt with Sparks and he came up with a couple of clutch buckets and rebounds down the stretch. This turned out to be another point of emphasis for Leone regarding his comfort levels with the depth on his team.
“We finished the game with two freshman guards out there,” Leone said “so that’s pretty good for the future of our program. It was a great thing for them to be able to go through that experience especially during a win.”
Although, this win may have been a loss if it wasn’t for Joe Sullivan’s ability to flip the switch in the second half. Sullivan was non-existent in the first half ending without a bucket but through all of the adversity Oswego played against being in Moravian’s backyard, he finished with 22 second-half points.
“We challenged a couple of guys at halftime.” Leone expressed, “Like a senior should, [Sullivan] stepped up his game and played a great second half. We wouldn’t have won without him.”
Joe Sullivan finished with five boards to add to his second-half outburst and went 10 for 11 from the charity stripe. Funny enough, his missed free throw would be the ONLY missed free throw on the night for the Lakers. Oswego made 37 free throws on 38 attempts which helped seal the deal late in the game. Coach Leone was satisfied by their efforts at the line tonight.
“That was the thing I was most happy about.” Leone said, “I don’t know if we made that one we missed if it would be some kind of record for us. 37 out of 38 is pretty impressive and our guys deserve a lot of credit on that.”
Sullivan and Gartland combined for 21 of 22 at the free-throw line on Sunday night as the Lakers outran the Greyhounds winning by a score of 85 to 79 and improve to 7-2 on the year. The Lakers will play their home opener this Friday against Fredonia at 7:30 p.m. in Max Zeil Gymnasium, and look for Jeremiah Sparks to continue to produce as he grows into a future SUNYAC star.
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Women’s Basketball Get Back in the Win Column
BUFFALO, NY – The Lakers after losing their first game of the season yesterday got back in the win column taking down Buffalo State 73-66. The Lakers didn’t trail at once during the game.The Lakers started out the game on a hot streak as they made three straight three-pointers to lead 9-6 where Buffalo State would also hit two three-pointers in a row as well. Karleigh Leo would hit two of those three-pointers with the other from Logan Castiglione. The Lakers hit four three-pointers in total in the first quarter with the fourth coming from Shania Iglesias. Oswego would shoot 44.4% from the field compared to the Bengals 35.00%. The Lakers would lead 26-18 at the end of the first quarter.
The Lakers momentum only continued in the second quarter where they would lead 41-30 at the half. The Lakers managed to put up a respectable 41.2% from the field and 42.9% from the three-point range. The Lakers managed to add two more three-pointers in the second quarter as Logan Castiglione hit her second of the game and Peyton Daeffler made her first three-pointer of the season.
Diamond Pickett scored the first points of the second half to extend the Lakers lead to 13. Castiglione would add her third three-pointer of the game to extend the Lakers lead to 46-32 with 7:49 left in the third quarter. The Lakers struggled from the field in the quarter as they shot 18.18% in the third. The Lakers led 54-45 at the end of the third quarter.
PHOTO CREDITS PROVIDED BY OSWEGO STATE ATHLETICS
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Oswego State women’s basketball mid-season update
OSWEGO, N.Y. – The Oswego State Women’s basketball team is off to a historic start to their season, and the best under head Coach Sean Pinkerton. With nine wins so far this season, they passed the most wins in a single season by Pinkerton, which was seven in the 2017-18 season, in their December 3 win over the Buffalo State Bengals. So far they are 3-2 in the SUNYAC, putting them in sixth place so far, but still have 13 games still to play in the league.
The Lakers have been led by transfer Karleigh Leo this season. The Liverpool, N.Y. native transferred in this season from Stevenson University and has made a major impact. She has played in 10 of 11 games so far this season, starting all ten. She leads the team with 16.3 points per game, and is also averaging 4.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists. She is third in all of D3 in three pointers attempted and fourth in three pointers made. She is second in three pointers per game.
Three other Lakers are scoring more than 10 points per game. Diamond Pickett is second on the team with 13.4 points per game, Logan Castiglione is third with 11.8 per game, and Shania Iglesias is the fourth with 11.4 per game. Pickett, in her second season, is also averaging 12 rebounds per game. Her six double-doubles this season have her in a 11-way for 12th most in the country.
As previously mentioned, the squad is 9-2 this season. They started the year on a seven game win streak that brought them through non-conference play and into their first SUNYAC game. The win streak included a win in the Max Ziel Women’s basketball tournament. They play two games before the new year, an exhibition with Colgate on December 17, and a non-conference game with Alfred State on December 30. Less than a week after New Years they restart conference play. They start January 6 first with Buffalo State at home, a matchup they won 73-66 in Buffalo earlier this season. Then Geneseo comes to town on January 7. The Lakers continue their season, trying to make the SUNYAC playoff for the first time since the 2012-13 season.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY OSWEGO ATHLETICS
