PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — The Oswego State women’s basketball team fell in their SUNYAC matchup against Plattsburgh State. The final score was 49-73 in favor of the Cardinals. Plattsburgh State was hot the whole game and proved to be too much to handle for the Lakers. At the half the Lakers were down by fourteen and despite an effort to bounce back, they could not find a rhythm to get the job done. The leading scorers for the women this game were senior Raiven Encarnacion with twelve points, and senior Danielle Caivana with eleven. Despite these two individual performances, Plattsburgh was able to hold the Lakers to 13.5% shooting on the night. The Lakers are now 3-9 on the season and 0-6 in the SUNYAC as they look to gain some momentum in their next matchup against Geneseo. Tip of is at 5:30 p.m. on January 19th on WTOP10!
Image Provided by Oswego State Athletics
-
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.
-
Big Weekend in Men’s Soccer
OSWEGO — A big weekend coming up for the Lakers as they host Plattsburgh on Friday and Potsdam on Saturday. The Lakers will head into the action (3-5-1) overall, but more importantly (0-3) in conference play which makes these games even more important. Two wins this weekend would give the Lakers six points in the standings and would greatly improve their chances of getting one of the six spots in the SUNYAC championship tournament later this month.
-
Baseball opens SUNYAC play with weekend series sweep
Endwell N.Y. — The Oswego State baseball team took to the road this weekend to take on the New Paltz Hawks for a three game set to open their SUNYAC play. They played two games Saturday, winning both, and took the series topper on Sunday. Saturday’s first game saw the Hawks grab an early 2-0 lead. A lead of single and then a one out walk got two men on the base paths, a two out double drove both runs home. The Lakers finally found their swings in the third inning. Back to back one out doubles saw the Lakers grab their first run of the inning. After a fly out, an error on the Hawks saw the second runner get home. A walk followed by a single and another walk saw the Lakers load the bases, and then Julien Drew would send them all home with a grand slam. They Lakers ended the inning with the lead 6-2. The next inning saw the Lakers put three more on the score board. A lead off double, followed by walk and single saw the Lakers load the bases for the second inning in a row. Julien Drew would come back up to the plate with two out and this time hit a double to drive in three, his fifth, sixth, and seventh RBI’s of the day. In the fifth Ryan Enos would drive out his sixth homer of the season, this one a two run shot, to put the Lakers up 11-2. Oswego got another run in the sixth. In the seventh the Lakers would hit another two run shot and drive in a third to put the lead to 13, 15-2. Oswego’s staters, Anthony Van Fossen, was relieved to start the eighth, he gave up six hits, two runs, and walked three. With Van Fossen out of the game, New Paltz found a grove. Back to back singles, followed by a single loaded the bases with none out in the inning. A fielder’s choice at third saw one run cross the plate, and left men at first and second. Another fielders choice saw the Hawks have men at first and third with two outs. A single scored one, and that was followed by bunt to load the bases. A passed ball saw their fifth run score, and a wild pitched scored their sixth. No runs would be scored for the rest of the game and Oswego won, 15-6. Oswego finished the game with 20 hits, six doubles, and three homeruns.
Game two of the double header was a the exact opposite of game one. The Lakers were the first to find the scoreboard. Paul Tammaro led off with a walk for the Lakers. New Paltz got two outs, but Tammaro stole second and third in the process, he scored on single. Both teams went scoreless on through the top of the fifth. In the bottom half, Ryan Enos led off with a walk, he moved to second on a Kyle Lauria single, and scored on Lukas Olsson double to left, for the Lakers second run. The Lakers held the Hawks scoreless over the final two innings and won 2-0 in the seven inning bout. The Lakers were held to four hits, but walked six times. Paul Tammaro stole four bases in the game. New Paltz was held to three singles and a lone walk in the game.
The third game of the series was played Sunday. The Lakers grabbed the early lead again in this game. A Ryan Enos single in the bottom of the first followed by a Kyle Lauria walk brought Lukas Olsson to the plate. He smacked a double into left and drove in both runners for the 2-0 lead. A one-two-three top of the second was followed by a lead off double by Jacob Levine in the bottom half. A single moved him to third, and he scored on a double-play. The Lakers kept their momentum going and Paul Tammaro singled with two outs. He moved to third on an error, and Enos walked to have runners at first and third. Lauria tripled driving in both, and he then scored on an Olsson single. Oswego left the inning up 6-0. New Paltz grabbed one in the third, but Oswego answered with one of their in the bottom half. A scoreless fourth was followed by a five run fifth for the Lakers, a CJ McCarthy three run shot, and a Lauria two run single. Oswego also got one in the sixth, a lead off solo homer by Sam Allen. The Hawks got their second run in the top of the seventh. New Paltz got one in the top of the eight, and in the bottom of the eight, Oswego grabbed one more too. The game ended with Oswego winning 14-3. Oswego had 18 hits and seven walks in the game. Kyle Lauria led the team with four RBIs, with Lukas Olsson and CJ McCarthy both having three.
The Lakers now have a 13-3 (3-0 SUNYAC) record. They are currently 20th in the national poll. Their next game is Wednesday against St. John Fisher in Rochester, and that’s followed by three game set with the Plattsburgh Cardinals on Friday and Saturday.
