DANBURY, Conn. - In the opening 20 minutes of its non-conference battle at Western Connecticut State, the Plattsburgh State men's basketball team employed a sizzling touch from downtown to prevent the Colonials from seizing control of the game.

It appeared as though the Cardinals had put the kibosh on the Colonials, marooning them in their locker room facing an 11-point deficit, but that time only let the home team stew and formulate a plan of revenge. The final 20 minutes saw Plattsburgh State face the full-on wrath of Conn.

A diversified offensive attack plan for the Cardinals couldn't offset a 29-turnover performance as Plattsburgh State fell to the Colonials by an 89-84 tally in Stephan Feldman Arena on Friday night.

Of the 29 turnovers committed by the visitors, 17 of them occurred in the seconds half and led to 21 of the Colonials' 52 second-half points. The shooting percentages – especially from long range (12-of-24, 50-percent) – were there for the Cardinals, but in addition to the turnovers, a 51.7-percent (14-of-27) clip at the charity stripe didn't help their cause.

Running a majority of their plays without a true point guard on the floor, senior Shamoy McIntosh served as the Cardinals' primary offensive distributor. The Floral Park, N.Y., product struck for his first helper just 21 seconds into the tilt when he located junior long-range bomber Edward Correa for a downtown hit in the far corner.

Through the first 8:42 of action, Plattsburgh State surrendered just nine points to the home-standing Colonials who shot just 3-for-18 (16.7-percent) during that span while committing a trio of turnovers.

Offensive production was plentiful to say the least for the Cardinals, who struck again and again from three-point land to turn a 9-9 deadlock into a 20-9 advantage in just 2:21.
Through the course of the Cardinals' opening salvo, high-rising junior Xavier Thomas sunk a pair of long balls from each of the corners while Kyle Richardson added one of his own from straight on.

For the remainder of the stanza, Plattsburgh State maintained a lead of no fewer than seven points and held an edge of as many as 13 points on two occasions. In addition to Thomas and Correa, Ezra Hodgson, Shamoy McIntosh and Kyle Richardson each canned a triple in a first half which saw the Cardinals splash 61.5-percent (8-of-13) of their attempts from that distance.

Redemption for the Colonials came by way of particularly nasty brand of ball-hawking pressure. Inbounding the basketball became more of a chore than an easy task for the Cardinals, who saw the home squad rip off a 7-0 run to energize the pro-Colonial faithful in attendance.

Searching desperately for options on the offensive end of the floor in order to stay afloat, the Cardinals turned to Richardson and his three-point shooting prowess. The junior our of Baldwin, N.Y., banged another pair of trifectas to push the Plattsburgh State lead back to eight (54-46) with 14:46 remaining.

Every basket the Cardinals sunk elicited a response from the Colonials, but Thomas showed off his maneuverability in the paint by hitting an acrobatic layup to keep the Plattsburgh State edge at six as 12:40 shone on the game clock.

That really got the attention of the Colonials, though, who utilized points from five different student-athletes during the course of a 17-3 run over a span of 3:25 which put the Cardinals at a 69-61 disadvantage.

Unwilling to go quietly into their first setback of 2014-15, Plattsburgh State took its turn as the aggressors on the offensive end. Another Correa long ball sparked a 17-6 Cardinal run which was led largely by McIntosh and Jordan Moody. The duo of final-year men combined for 12 points during the scoring spree. Moody's hard-driving layup capped the surge and gave the visitors a 78-75 lead with 4:33 to go.

Personal fouls, too, would play a part of the Cardinals demise down the stretch. With seemingly each of the Colonials' speedy and intrusive forays into the painted, the Cardinals fouled time and time again. That led to the Western Connecticut effectively finishing the game at the foul line where 12 of their final 14 points came.

McIntosh gave the Cardinals a glimmer of hope when his exceptionally deep downtown splashdown trimmed his squad's deficit to 84-82 with 1:41 to go, but another Plattsburgh State foul sent Jeremiah Washington to the line where he hit one of his two attempts.

Using his remarkable leaping abilities, Thomas nearly tied things up for the Cardinals, too. The junior corralled an offensive rebound off a Moody free throw miss, but his tip-in attempt with 1:07 to go rolled off of the rim.

McIntosh finished with game-highs in points (16) and assists (eight) to pace the Cardinals. Richardson added 14 on 4-of-4 shooting from long range while Correa pumped in 14. Hodgson and Thomas each chipped in 13 apiece for the Cardinals.

Bobby Bynum stole the show for the Colonials, coming up with 15 points as well as a game-high seven thefts. Of their 41 free throw attempts, Western Connecticut hit 30 of them.

A rare Monday night roundball matchup is next up on the Cardinals' docket when they travel south to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., engage in a non-conference skirmish with Skidmore. The tilt is scheduled to tip-off at 7 p.m.