Box Score BROCKPORT, N.Y. – Mathematically speaking, one will never be greater than five. In the sport of basketball, however, a single player possessing the right set of skills and willpower can lead his or her team to victory. That is unless the five players opposing him are able to band together and make sure the team will not be outweighed by the talents of one individual.
 
It was one of those kinds of nights in Brockport as the Plattsburgh State men's basketball team rallied and stood strong for a 92-89 triumph over the No. 15-ranked Golden Eagles.
 
John Ivy poured in a game and career-high 40 points for the home squad, but Shavar Fields and John Perez led a quartet of double-figure scorers for the Cardinals with 23 and 21 points respectively to help the Cardinals spring the upset.
 
With the victory, the Cardinals improved to 16-3 and 10-2 in the SUNYAC and brought the Golden Eagles' (16-2, 10-1 SUNYAC) plans for an undefeated year in the conference to a screeching halt.
 
"Before the game started, we told our team that Brockport was going to go on some runs, pump itself up and get the crowd involved," said head coach Tom Curle. "When that happened, our focus was set on calming ourselves down and we did that really well."
 
Right from the opening tip, it was clear there would be no love lost between the two squads. By the time the final horn rang through the facility, some 62 personal fouls and 87 free throw attempts were in the home scorebook.
 
Ivy began the scoring by snaking through the Cardinals' interior defense to drop in his first of 11 field goals before Fields received the go-ahead to pound away at the Golden Eagles' woefully deficient frontcourt.
 
Employing a laundry list of post moves as well as a soft touch, the Albany, N.Y., product went on a personal 6-0 run to put the visitors on top 6-2. Following Fields' outburst, the Golden Eagles responded with an 8-0 surge to climb up 10-6 with 15:21 to go in the first frame.
 
That was the only cue the 1,500 Brockport supporters required as their omnipresent chanting quickly became a factor in the equation of the bout. Entering the game as the team who sinks the most three-pointers per game in the 10-team SUNYAC, the Cardinals' long-range game went by the wayside as all but two points in the initial 20-minute frame were scored either inside the painted area or at the charity stripe.
 
Throughout the majority of the opening stanza, Brockport maintained an advantage that stood anywhere between two and six points before the Cardinals were finally able to string together some points. Xavier Thomas, Alan Siergiej and Ezra Hodgson would chip in points to keep the Cardinals within shouting distance.
 
Perhaps no shot in the opening frame was more acrobatic than the contested, off-balance jumper Thomas sank which knotted matters at 28 with 3:48 to go in the half. Fields gave the visitors their first lead in over 15 minutes when his fast break finger roll found its way through the net to make it 32-30.
 
Ivy, though, responded with an old-fashioned three-point play which handed the Golden Eagles their final lead of the game, 37-36, with 1:38 to go in the half. An 8-0 run by the visitors put the wraps on the opening stanza, with Perez powering the offensive mechanisms. The senior put in six of the eight and Edward Correa added the other two with a pair of splashes at the charity stripe. From that point on, the Cardinals would never trail again.
 
Plattsburgh State wouldn't hit offensive pay dirt again until over three minutes had gone by in the final frame. During those minutes, the Golden Eagles netted six points of their own to trim their deficit to just one but Perez halted the home squad's offensive march with a pair of free throw hits.
 
Five more points from Fields and the Cardinals' first three-point connection of the night courtesy of Hodgson made things 52-46 with 15:22 to go, but Ivy kept coming at the Cardinals.
 
The high-scoring guard put in six of the next nine points for the Golden Eagles but four points from Perez and another pair from Thomas staked the visitors to their largest lead of the game, 62-55 with 11:20 remaining.
 
Clifton Lyerly's layup and following foul shot brought the Cardinals' edge down to 70-69, but Shamoy McIntosh sandwiched a pair of free throws and his sole long ball of the evening around an icy pull-up jumper from Chris Manning to up the Plattsburgh State edge to 77-70.
 
No matter how much of a chunk Ivy and his compatriots took out of the Cardinals' lead or how much noise the surly Brockport congregation emitted, Plattsburgh State stood strong each and every time.
 
In a drama-fraught final minute, Brandon Caruthers cut Plattsburgh State's edge to 86-84 with an uncontested layup before McIntosh outpaced the quintet of Golden Eagles for a close proximity bank shot of his own which made matters 88-84 with 24 ticks remaining.
 
As the Brockport faithful were beginning to file out, Ivy nailed a triple over the outstretched fingertips of Mike Mitchell, eliciting a great cheer from the pro-Golden Eagle group. With the screams and chants raining down on them, Hodgson and McIntosh went 4-of-4 from the free throw stripe to keep the Cardinals' lead at three. Perez locked down Ivy on the final possession and his would-be game tying triple fell well short to give the Cardinals the win.
 
"Ivy is very difficult to guard and in the time I've been coaching, that's the best defense we've played on a 40-point scorer," Curle said. "He had to earn all of those points. He's a great, great scorer and he brought his A-game."
 
Hodgson (15), Thomas (12) and McIntosh (11) rounded out the Cardinals' main scoring culprits while Caruthers (11) and Lyerly (11) were the only other Golden Eagles to surpass 10 points.
 
Perez yanked down a game-high 15 rebounds for the Cardinals, who held a 55-47 rebounding edge over the Golden Eagles. Plattsburgh State hit 40 percent of their field goals compared to a 36.5 percent showing from the home squad.
 
Another big tilt is on tap for the Cardinals on Saturday as the head to SUNY Geneseo – the third-place team in the SUNYAC – to take on the Knights at 4 p.m.
 
"Tomorrow is a completely different game and we should be able to change gears a little bit," finished Curle. "It's incumbent upon the players to be play well and it's going to be execution over athleticism."