Box Score ONEONTA, N.Y. – If the Plattsburgh State men's basketball team plans on continuing their hot shooting touch in road tilts, it may not even want to make a return to Memorial Hall this season.

The senior duo of Shavar Fields and John Perez each put in 22 points and fellow senior Chris Manning contributed a career-high 16 to the cause as the Cardinals downed Oneonta State 84-73 on the strength of 56.1 percent (32-of-57) field goal shooting at Dewar Arena on Saturday afternoon.

Plattsburgh State remains firmly entrenched in the upper half of the conference standings with its latest victory, moving to 10-3 and 4-2 in the league. The Red Dragons slip to 8-6 and 5-2 in conference engagements.

A heavy dose of Fields and Perez on the block was the key to success for the Cardinals in the opening stages of the important conference duel. The pair combined for nine of the first 11 Plattsburgh State points, helping the visitors claim an 11-5 advantage after a three-point play from Fields 3:33 into the game.

A second-chance opportunity be Oneonta's Mikey McElroy began a 10-2 stretch for the home team which earned its first lead of the afternoon after Dan Lee ventured out beyond the three-point arc and drilled the second long ball of the game for the home squad.

Trailing 15-13 with 12:55 to go in the opening frame, the Cardinals maintained their assault on the painted area with Perez slinging in six of the next nine points for the visiting team. The squads went basket-for-basket with each other for the remainder of the stanza, but Manning sunk an acrobatic layup with two seconds remaining in the half which send the Cardinals to the halftime strategy session in possession of a 32-31 advantage.

The first 20 minutes saw Oneonta State and SUNYAC scoring machine Zach Magar accumulate 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting.

Thanks to Manning's last-second hit, the Cardinals would never trail again. The Baldwin, N.Y., native upped the Plattsburgh State lead to 39-35 after he rattled in another layup 2:38 into the deciding frame, but back-to-back layups from Mager and McElroy would go on to deadlock the tilt at 39.

Sophomore Xavier Thomas took to the sky to secure an offensive rebound before his tip-in with 15:29 showing on the game clock allowed the Cardinals to take back the lead, 41-39.

The next six Cardinal markers came from Perez before Edward Correa added a layup of his own which upped the Plattsburgh State lead to 49-43 with 13:23 remaining.

A trio of free throw makes coupled with a McElroy layup helped the Red Dragons hang tough, but Manning launched and hit a long distance field goal before Perez successfully pushed the Plattsburgh State lead to double digits with a pair of makes at the charity stripe.

Junior Ezra Hodgson fired in a long ball of his own to help the Cardinals maintain their 10-point edge, 63-53, with 9:30 to go in the tilt.

Thanks to some long-range accuracy of their own, the Red Dragons went on to whittle the Plattsburgh State lead down to 63-61 after Jack Dignan and Jackson Zuvic pulled up and hit triples. That was as close as Oneonta State would get for the rest of the night, however, as a 16-2 Plattsburgh State run over a 7:30 stretch put the game out of reach.

Manning began the game-clinching spurt by splashing his third trifecta of the bout before Mike Mitchell followed with a long ball of his own. Another heavy dose of Fields, who scored seven points during the surge, allowed the Cardinals to take a 79-63 lead with 1:31 to go. From there, the Cardinals closed things out at the free throw stripe.

Mager was allowed his customary large scoring load, netting a game-high 28 on 10-of-20 shooting, but during the Cardinals' big run the Red Dragons were just 1-for-6 from the field and committed four turnovers.

Plattsburgh State forced 17 turnovers and committed just nine of its own. Of its 84 points, only 11 were not scored by the starting five. The Cardinals also enjoyed a 7-for-12 (58.3 percent) showing from downtown.

Oneonta hit 50 percent (27-of-54) of its field goals including 10 of its 22 (45.5 percent) three-pointers.

In search of their eighth win in nine games, the Cardinals return to Memorial Hall on Tuesday to begin a three-game week with a tilt against SUNYAC and North Country nemesis SUNY Potsdam. The game is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.