OSWEGO, NY — Men’s Hockey returns home after a successful trip to the North Country last weekend. The Laker’s wins over Potsdam and Plattsburgh secures the team in second place in the SUNYAC standings behind Geneseo, their competition Friday night. The Knights are currently ranked in third in the nation as the team holds a 15-3-2 record. Geneseo is coming off two wins in central New York as the team defeated Morrisville 6-0 and 8-3. However, Geneseo is only two points ahead of Oswego in the standings as the Lakers have played on less conference game than the Knights. This battle Friday is set to decide who will take the first seed heading into the playoffs. With Oswego not being ranked nationally, the Lakers only chance to make the NCAA tournament this season is through the conference’s automatic bid, in which the team must go through Geneseo to do so.
The last time these two teams met was back in November when the Lakers traveled to Geneseo for a Saturday night faceoff. However, the 1-9 loss was a major setback to the season as the team would go on a three game losing streak all against nationally ranked teams. But Oswego currently is on a three game win streak that has been on the back of new starting goalie Steven Kozikoski.
Friday Night’s game will be the first game of the second semester as students are back on campus. You can expect a packed Marano Campus Center as Oswego hasn’t beaten the Knights since the 2017-18 season. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and coverage can be found on WTOP 10 and WNYO.
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Oswego State men’s basketball take three wins on the road
OSWEGO N.Y. — The Lakers took a full week of games head on, winning all three games they played including two huge scoring outputs. The first game of the week came on Tuesday against the Buffalo State Bengals in Buffalo, the final score a whopping 109-72, the first of two times they would score 109 this week. The game started close, 11-10 after five minutes with Devin Green connecting from deep twice. Oswego would take off from there, a 19-5 scoring run with six points from Ahkee Anderson and ten from Christian Simmons saw the lead grow to 30-15. The Lakers would score 24 more over the next ten minutes, and would go into the half with a commanding 52-32 lead. Oswego was an excellent 54.3% from the field in the first half, and 47% from beyond the arc. The second half was just more Oswego domination, the lead wouldn’t fall below twenty, and was up to forty with a minute to go. A few garbage time points from the Bengals saw a final score of 109-72. The Lakers were led by twenty-two from Simmons, who added eight rebounds. Green added seventeen to the score line, 5-10 from three on the night. Anderson and Jamal Achille had fourteen and twelve respectively. Four other lakers would have more than eight points.
Game two of the week came on the road against the Potsdam Bears. A tighter contest on the scoreboard saw Oswego win 76-58. The Lakers would find themselves down one after ten minutes. Devin Green helped keep it close with a pair of threes early. A Jeremiah Sparks lay-up would cap off a 12-2 Lakers run that would take the lead for Lakers, 29-20. The Lakers and Bears would go back and forth the remainder of the half and would go into the locker rooms with Oswego up 40-29. The Lakers capitalized on turnovers scoring twelve of their points on seven Potsdam turnovers. The Bears didn’t let the lead grow too much to start the second half, the score was 51-36 after the first five minutes. Ahkee Anderson would assist on back to back baskets and the lead would grow to nineteen. With seven minutes remaining in the game, the Bears had cut the lead to only seven. Successful threes and good defense helped the Bears get back into the game. Julien Crittendon would hit a three to extend the lead back to ten and take momentum back from Potsdam. The Lakers would use the momentum to close the game out for the final score of 76-58. Crittendon would lead the team in points with seventeen. Jamal Achille had sixteen on the night while sharing the rebound lead with Sparks at nine. Sparks would add twelve of his own.
The final game of the week was against the Plattsburgh Cardinals in Plattsburgh. It was domination again for the Lakers as they won 109-70. Plattsburgh took four of the first six points before the Lakers took the reigns of the game. Eighteen straight points over four and half minutes saw the Lakers take the lead that would last the rest of the game. The Lakers had over half their points in the first half, going into the locker rooms up 62-31. The Lakers utilized their bench during the half, with 38 of their points being from the bench. The defense was also on the point forcing sixteen turnovers. The Lakers extended their lead to 45 over the first eight minutes of the second half. Both teams would go back and forth through the rest of the game and get to the final of 109-72. Five Lakers would hit the double digit scoring mark, freshman Marcus Shelton leading the team with fourteen off the bench. Christian Simmons added thirteen points and seven rebounds, with Devin Green, Jeremiah Sparks, and Kaleb Cook all with ten. Ahkee Anderson and Brendon Mulson added nine each. 66 of the Lakers points came from the bench. The team shot 53.8% from the field, while also an excellent 16-20 from the free throw line.
Oswego’s winning streak now sits at ten games and they have a record of 13-1 (7-0 SUNYAC). Coming into the week they sat just two spots out of the top 25 with 28 points, number 25, Emory, has 40 points. Their next game is against the Geneseo Knights in Oswego on Tuesday, January 18. Geneseo is second in the SUNYAC also undefeated in conference play at 6-0 and are 8-4 on the year.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY OSWEGO ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT
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Women’s Lacrosse falls to Clarkson
OSWEGO, NY — Women’s Lacrosse faced off against Clarkson Wednesday afternoon at Laker Stadium for a non-conference match up. The Lakers fell 9-5 to the Knights as Clarkson was ahead 4-1 heading into halftime. The Lakers would try to rally in the second half as the team netted four goals but that did not compare to Clarkson’s five goals that helped lead the team to victory. The Lakers were led by Montana Garrett as the senior netted her 100th career collegiate goal and two other goals for the hattrick. Molly Beck also tallied two goals for Oswego. Netminder Elianna Sanchez would make seven saves in the lost.
The Lakers are currently 1-2 as the team lost to William Smith back on February 29th in Geneva but won their home opener against Morrisville. Oswego now gets set to travel to Williamsport, Pennsylvania to play Lycoming for another non-conference match up. Their first SUNYAC match up will not be till March 21st when Fredonia travels to Laker Stadium. Saturday’s match up will begin at noon.
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Oswego men’s basketball split the week with SUNYAC opponents
OSWEGO, NY. – The Oswego State Men’s Basketball team returned home for their first SUNYAC matchup of the season on Tuesday evening .The Lakers opened up their conference play against the Fredonia Blue Devils. The Lakers got off to a hot start offensively, hitting 3 of their first 5 three point shots. After the first ten minutes of play, the Lakers were 7/10 from the three point line and played great defensively holding Fredonia to only 17% from the field. Oswego would take a lead by 27 before the Blue Devils started to make their own run to cut their lead back down to 21. At half,Oswego would have a 46-25 lead in help from a combination of great defense and even better offense. The Lakers shot 50% from behind the arc and overall 47.4% from the fieldOswego was able to win on the glass in the half, out rebounding the Blue Devils with a 22-16 margin. The Lakers played great team basketball as they spread the ball around, resulting in ten different players recording at least one field goal in the half.
Jeremiah Sparks started the second half with a flash when he started with a steal and a dunk in transition. The very next play Sparks stole the ball again and got another two points on the fastbreak just seconds later. The Blue Devils played better offensively in second half, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit handed to them by the Lakers. A dunk in transition by Cartier Bowman with 7 minutes left was the exclamation point stopping the Fredonia run and Oswego was able to hit several three-point attempts late in the second half to close out the 79-60 victory.
Cartier Bowman had a great game recording a double-double with 22 points, 12 rebounds, and two blocks. The Lakers ended the game 4-1 and 1-0 in the SUNYAC.
The Lakers returned back to the Max Ziel on Friday in a tough SUNYAC matchup against the Brockport Golden Eagles. The game started with a low scoring affair as no team could get the momentum going. Oswego trailed Brockport 13-7 just over 10 minutes into the contest, but went on a 10-0 run to take a 17-13 lead with five minutes remaining in the first half. The Golden Eagles went on a little run of their own the last 5 minutes and the Lakers now trailed 28-25 at half.
The second half started with both teams swapping the lead back and forth. Oswego started knocking down half of their shots going 50% from the field. Brockport then came back with a a sixpoint lead with only six minutes left and coming out of a Laker timeout Jamal Achille hit a layup helping the struggling offensive lakers cut the deficit to four. That layup with be the last score for either team until about 90 seconds remaining in the game when Brockport kept growing their lead. On the Oswego side Devin Green ended the game with 11 points. The Lakers struggled all game shooting 25.7% from the field, and 18.5% from three point range. The Lakers did have more offensive rebounds recording 16 to Brockport’s 10.
The Lakers move to 4-2(1-1) overall and have their first lost in the SUNYAC with a record of 1-1.The men now travel to Buffalo to face the Buffalo State Bengals on December 3, and look to get back in the win column against a team that has lost two games in a row.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY OSWEGO ATHLETICS
