PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Over the course of the Plattsburgh State men's basketball teams' last four games, the Cardinals have opened up a double-digit lead against their opponents. In each of those contests, the opposition came back to make things interesting.

On Saturday afternoon in Memorial Hall, the Cardinals' inability to hang on to a margin of 10 or more points came back to haunt them.

Up 25-9 in the first half, the Cardinals couldn't put away a hard-working SUNY Cortland team and wound up falling to the Red Dragons 68-65 in overtime on Saturday afternoon.

Ezra Hodgson wasn't even allowed to get a remotely good look at a game-tying three at the horn as the Red Dragons' defense held strong. With the loss, Plattsburgh State moves to 9-4 and 4-2 in SUNYAC tilts while SUNY Cortland rises to 10-3 and 4-3 in league bouts.

The setback also puts head coach Tom Curle's quest to become the program's all-time winningest coach on hold. Coming into Saturday's bout, the 13^th-year bench boss needed one more win to surpass Joe Jastrab for the aforementioned title.

Even though the Cardinals were able to outshoot their longtime foes 44.6-percent (25-for-56) to 39.7-percent (25-for-63), the Red Dragons hung in there thanks to a marked discrepancy in the free throw department. SUNY Cortland took 18 foul shots and hit 14 of them compared to a 6-for-7 (85.7-percent) showing by the home team. The Cardinals didn't register an attempt from the free throw stripe in the first 20 minutes of action.

Three-pointers were the Cardinals' weapon of choice during their opening salvo. Senior Shamoy McIntosh splashed the first of six Plattsburgh State downtown shots to stake his team to a 3-0 lead 2:46 in.

After the Red Dragons came back to tie things up at five with a three-point play from Carrel Joseph, McIntosh laced another triple to begin a 20-4 surge by the home team. Playing a primary part in the scoring spree was Hodgson who banged in a trio of deep balls.

Kyle Richardson and Mike Mitchell also connected on three-point tries before Reggie Williams put in two of his game-high 22 points to close the books on the Plattsburgh State offensive explosion. With 7:42 to go in the first frame, Grequan Carter and T.J. Hefele decided to do something about the Red Dragons' sizable deficit.

The pair combined to score the first eight points during a 15-3 stretch for the Red Dragons to close out the half. The Cardinals' lone bucket came from Xavier Thomas who tickled the twine with his sole long-range bucket of the afternoon.

Leading 28-24 to begin the second half, Williams, Ed Correa and senior Jordan Moody went about bringing that lead back up to 10. The pair put in every one of the Cardinals' points during a 12-6 swing in the first 5:15 of the second half. Doing most of the heavy lifting during that span was Williams who slung in eight.

Staring a 40-30 disadvantage squarely in the face, the Red Dragons shrank it to just two with an 8-0 surge featuring scores by four different players.

Nothing less than a one-man wrecking crew in the second half, Williams came to the Cardinals' rescue with a layup and a one-handed fast-break jam – both off of assists from Mitchell – to make it a four-point lead for the home team once again.
Richardson and Hefele swapped downtown hits before another Williams close-range bank shot made things 49-43 with 9:55 remaining in regulation.

Of the 27 points the Cardinals netted in the second half, all but nine were pumped in by Williams. Two of those nine were of the awe-inspiring variety when Mitchell tossed an alley-oop pass to Thomas who tossed down a big-time dunk on an unfortunate SUNY Cortland defender, making the score 51-47 Cardinals with 7:18 to go.

That field goal, though, was the last one the Cardinals would score for a stretch of almost six minutes. Lamard Herron put the Red Dragons on his back and scored five points during an 8-0 run for the visitors. A layup from Herron gave the visitors their first edge of the day before Michael Kelly made it a 55-51 lead with 1:45 to go.

Williams, though, was at it again as he hit a mid-range jumper and bowled past a defender to net the game-tying hoop with 27 seconds left.

Moody gave the Cardinals their only lead in overtime when he skied for an offensive rebound and scored on a put-back layup to make the score 57-55 17 seconds into the extra five-minute session.

Kelly gave the Red Dragons the lead for good, though, when his three-ball with 3:24 to go helped the visitors go up 60-57.

A three-point play from Thomas pulled the Cardinals within three, 66-63, with 44 ticks left, but Herron hit an uncontested layup with 16 seconds to go to re-increase the Red Dragons' edge to five points.

Herron netted a team-best 20 for the Red Dragons while Justin Prendergast added 11. Kelly chipped in 10 to round out SUNY Cortland's trio of high-point men. McIntosh was the only other Cardinal to reach double-figures as he had 11.

A little over three days will pass before the Cardinals take the court once again. In a midweek battle, Plattsburgh State welcomes longtime North Country and SUNYAC foe SUNY Potsdam into Memorial Hall for a 5:30 p.m. Tuesday tilt.