Box Score ONEONTA, N.Y. – Once again it was a mismatch on paper as the Plattsburgh State men’s basketball team hunkered down in Oneonta to face off against the Red Dragons.

And once again, the game proved to be far more hotly contested than most may have thought.

John Perez matched a career-high with 20 points and the Cardinals (13-6, 9-3 SUNYAC) blistered the nets on 35-of-58 (60.3 percent) shooting to survive a furious late-game comeback attempt by the Red Dragons (2-17, 1-11 SUNYAC) in an 86-77 victory at Dewar Arena on Friday night.

Very efficient in its own right, Oneonta sunk 25 of their 55 field goal attempts (45.5 percent), but the Cardinals’ depth proved to be one of the X factors once again.

Oneonta State enjoyed its only lead of the game after Terrence Parker drained a long ball that made things 3-0 in the opening minute of the contest.

From there, John Perez and Jordan Moody went to work on the interior. The duo joined forces to score the first 10 Plattsburgh State points of the game on layups and the Cardinals never looked back.  

A pair of free throws from Zach Mager cut the Plattsburgh State lead to 12-8, but Ezra Hodgson responded with a triple on the subsequent possession by the Cardinals.

Plattsburgh State thrived from downtown in the opening frame, hitting five of their nine attempts from that particular distance. With 9:53 remaining in the opening stanza, Edward Correa pushed the Cardinals’ edge to double-digits for the first time with a three-ball that made things 26-16.

Correa’s long ball was the start of a long-range shelling by the Cardinals who received triples from Mike Mitchell and Kalik Parker before the latter put the wraps on a three-point play with a free throw make that staked Plattsburgh State to its largest lead of the first half, 35-21, with 8:01 remaining in the frame.

Oneonta State managed to whittle the Plattsburgh State lead down to seven, 39-32, with 1:53 to go in the half, but Hodgson fired and hit yet another triple before Parker closed the first-half scoring in emphatic fashion. The junior threw down a dunk off of an assist from Billy O’Shea that sent the Cardinals to their locker room with a 44-32 lead.

Perez was at it again in the early stages of the deciding frame as the junior got the scoring going with a three-point play before Oneonta began to make things interesting.

Mager was the catalyst of an 8-0 spurt by the home team as he hit a quartet of free throws to help his team crawl back within 47-40. Once again, though, Hodgson provided an appropriate response by canning another triple that pushed the Plattsburgh State lead back to 10.

It became clear that the Red Dragons wouldn’t be brushed off easily as they managed to slice into the Plattsburgh State lead even further with another surge. After another layup off the hand of Perez, a 5-0 run that finished with a downtown make by Jack Dignan made it a 57-51 game – still in favor of Plattsburgh State.

As they had done all night, the Cardinals came up with a timely run – this one of the 14-3 variety and bookended by a pair of triples by Correa – that made it 71-54 with 5:40 to go in the game.

Saving their best basketball for the last stages of the game, the Red Dragons put it all on the floor with a desperation run of 23-10 that allowed them to get within four, 81-77, with 1:09 to go in the game.

Chris Manning was able to put the kibosh on any heroic comeback attempt as the junior scored the final five points of the game – including a 3-of-3 mark at the free throw stripe – to give the Cardinals their 13^th win of the season.

Despite the big outing from Perez, the Cardinals had plenty of other players to shoulder the scoring load. Moody finished with 13 points while Hodgson chipped in 11. Parker went 4-of-5 from the field en route to a 10-point performance to round out the main scoring contingent.

Jackson Zuvic had a great night for the Red Dragons, pouring in a game-high 23 points on 10-of-18 shooting while Mager added 21 while going 12-of-12 from the free throw line. As a team, Oneonta was 19-of-24 (79.2 percent) at the charity stripe while the Cardinals were 8-of-12 (66.7 percent).  

Aside from the lopsided shooting percentage the Cardinals were able to put up, the squads were fairly equal in all other aspects of the game. Both teams hauled in 28 rebounds and Oneonta had 20 turnovers compared to 19 by the Cardinals.

In their final road game of the regular season, the Cardinals will look to earn a season sweep of New Paltz when face the Hawks on Saturday afternoon. The game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.